


On the Tip of My Tongue

by Aer



Series: The Tower and the Ice [1]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 2018-2019 NHL Season, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - The Tower and the Hive, Angst, Calgary Flames, Familiarity with tower and hive series not required, Fluff, M/M, Porn, Telepathy, based on the series by Anne McCaffrey, but also twisted and turned as I please, powers, this is basically just a self indulgent pile of those three tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 16:20:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18641698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aer/pseuds/Aer
Summary: All Elias had ever wanted was to play hockey.Being a Prime Talent complicated that.So he did what any sane person would have done, and pretended that he was no such thing.Unsurprisingly, things only got more complicated from there.





	On the Tip of My Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> Holy _shit_. This is the longest thing I have _ever_ written, by quite a large margin. It’s also the fastest I think I’ve ever written, because this idea did not want to let go. 
> 
> All the thanks and praise to swedishgoaliemafia on tumblr, for cheerleading and hand holding and generally pushing me to not collapse in a despairing heap every time the word count went up another thousand and it still wasn’t done. This fic probably never would have been finished without her, so. Thank you! (It also never would have existed without her planting the idea for this pairing in my head.) 
> 
> This is completely unbetaed and barely proof read, because I kind of feel like crying every time I so much as think about editing this mess. 
> 
> I love it anyway.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Title is from MNEK’s song Tongue. 
> 
> Edit: Obligatory “if you found this by googling yourself or someone you know personally, please do us both a favor and hit the back button now”.

Somewhere in the myriad of paperwork that made up Elias’s official NHL file, there was a paper topped with the official FT&T stamp labeling him as a T12. It listed the specifics of his Talent as minor telepathic abilities, barely even registering on the scale. Hardly worth the time it took to test him, really, and certainly not enough for him to make a career out of (that was his own personal take, not something the paper actually said). Even Federal Teleport and Telepath, the world wide Talent organization, wouldn’t want him on the strength of his Talent. He’d be lucky to read someone’s mind if they were actually touching him- the ultimate gateway into people’s minds for most telepaths. 

Elias, five at the time, had been perfectly fine with that. Everyone knew strong Talents ended up working for FT&T, and he did not want that. He wanted to play hockey. 

And so he did. It wasn’t like a T12 was going to be strong enough to do anything during a game. And they had people for that anyway, refs with Talents only slightly stronger than Elias’s own but with knacks for sensing other Talents when they were in use. 

Elias played hockey, and did very well at it. So well, in fact, that when sometimes he reacted to plays on the ice a little _too_ fast, or passed to where someone was _going_ to be without looking, or seemed to know exactly where the goalie was having trouble covering that night? Well, clearly that was just because he was the kind of talent (no capital letter required) that any hockey team would want to have working for them.

Which suited Elias just fine. Everyone knew the strong Talents- especially the coveted T1s, the _Primes_ with their dual telepathy and telekinesis- _always_ ended up working for FT&T in the end. 

Elias just wanted to play hockey.

It was much easier to do that when people thought you only had enough Talent to barely register on the scale, instead of so much that the scale couldn’t actually _read_ you and zeroed out instead. 

Elias wanted to keep it that way. So he reined himself in and did his best to act like the minor Talent his file declared him. (Once he realized he needed to. In his defense, as a five year old he’d had no reason not to assume his Talent was minor when they’d told him as much. It meant he’d thought that actual Talents were _immeasurably_ powerful, if his own abilities were nothing compared to them. It had taken a mildly embarrassing incident a few years later with a fellow Talent, a T9 that he’d insisted must have been mislabeled, because he was just so _weak_ \- Elias had gotten his nose broken for that- to realize that maybe there was something else going on. It had taken several more years and a lot of surreptitious googling- and maybe some slightly shady tests- to figure out the truth.) 

He still slipped up from time to time. It was hard, containing a mind meant for entire worlds in just one skull. Sometimes, he just had to let loose- though it meant he’d found out more about more people’s sex lives than he’d _ever_ wanted. He figured that was probably enough punishment for a slip-up anyway. It was definitely good incentive to not do it again. That could be hard, though- especially when the people around him insisted on _touching_ him. 

Everyone _knew_ not to touch Primes. That even the strongest shields Primes used to prevent themselves from going mad from the overstimulation of ten thousand minds all shouting were nothing against skin to skin contact. But Elias _wasn’t_ a Prime as far as they knew, and so no one thought twice about grabbing him, hugging him, ruffling his hair, and more. It meant Elias got very good at forgetting things he wasn’t supposed to know, on top of developing what were probably the strongest shields of any Prime, ever. 

(That wasn’t saying much, really though. There’d only been Talents for two generations before Elias was born. There were only a handful of Primes in _existence_. Things were still new. Things slipped through the cracks.)

Still, Elias tried very hard to keep from slipping up on the ice. He’d never wanted to be a Prime, and he _certainly_ didn’t want to have an unfair advantage while playing. Winning because he was the better player? Absolutely. Beating an opponent because he could read their minds and know what play they were going to run? Elias was a hockey player. He wanted to prove his mettle fairly, and being able to read people’s minds just. Wasn’t. He couldn’t help but be aware of where people were on the ice, their minds lighting up like little flares against his, but he figured every level of Talent, even the T12 he wasn’t, had to be able to do that, so he didn’t worry too much. People mostly assumed he just had good hockey sense- which he _did_ , thank you very much, because just knowing where people are isn’t much good if you can’t figure out what that means for the play- and left it at that. 

The days he ended up knowing that the goalie thought he was faking them out and that there was no way he was going to shoot _there_ , so he did and made a goal? Well. It just meant extra training and even more work on his shields, though Elias figured even those slips could have been worse.

At least he was no longer reflexively teleporting away from checks. 

( _That_ had only happened once, and Calle was sworn to secrecy over the whole thing. If he even still remembered it, that was. It had been years ago, and he’d barely believed it even then.)

Overall, Elias thought he’d had things well under wraps, by the time he was 18 and eligible for the NHL Draft. The ‘Canes, a team of nulls, had done little to disabuse him of the notion, and by the time he’d been playing in the NHL for five years, Elias was confident in his ability to play without his Talent being even a consideration. 

Then the trade happened. And suddenly, Elias wasn’t so sure anymore.

* * *

David Rittich was a controversial name in certain circles. Some were circles that Elias technically wasn’t a part of, but kept track of anyway, and some were circles Elias definitely was involved in. 

It wasn’t every day a T4 told the FT&T to fuck off because he was going to play hockey, after all. 

Those circles had been _buzzing_ when Rittich had made his Extraliga debut. Elias, barely out of being a rookie in the NHL, had kept his head down through the whole thing, but he’d listened. People had wondered, “can a Talent just _do_ that?” They had wondered, “Is it fair for such a powerful telepath to play against minor Talents or nulls?” They had whispered, where they thought no one would hear, “What’s next, the _Primes_ leaving?” 

Everyone assured themselves that _that_ , at least, was ridiculous. But with a _T4_ playing hockey for a professional league... Well. Who knew what madness might be next? 

...A T4 in the NHL, apparently.

Elias had been grateful to Rittich for that, because even if he wasn’t a Prime, he was still the first powerful Talent to play hockey in the NHL, and that might open doors to other Talents in the future. (Elias didn’t expect it to smooth _his_ way, should he ever be found out. Primes were a horse of a very different breed to the public, revered when they were helping the world explore the solar system, and _feared_ the rest of the time. Still, Rittich was doing an amazing thing, by forcing the world to realize that there was more to a Talent than their power.)

He’d upped that to kinship when Rittich gave an interview about why he’d elected not to ply his Talent, saying: “I didn’t think about the FT&T. I just wanted to play hockey. I just wanted to play my lovely game.” That had been all Elias had wanted too, after all. 

And if maybe there was a dash of attraction in there, well. It wasn’t like he was ever going to meet the guy outside of a game. Who cared if seeing Rittich’s smile curled something deep in the pit of his stomach? If he sometimes dreamt of talking to someone who might be able to understand everything about him, from his hockey to his Talent, and why he would ever pick one over the other? As long as it didn’t harm his hockey, what did it hurt, to imagine that someone could know and love all of him. (Elias was fully aware that in choosing hockey, he’d chosen to lock a piece of himself away forever. He just also knew that giving up hockey in favor of being a Talent would have _killed_ his soul, rather than merely making him ache for limbs he hadn’t known he’d had before they were lost.)

Either way, he hadn’t expected Rittich’s career to impact his own. The man was doing great things, to be sure, but he was a country and a continent away. 

Then Elias got traded to the Flames, and David Rittich became important to Elias’s career overnight.

Elias had, over the past ten years, made a concentrated effort to avoid contact with high level Talents. He’d been afraid that somehow, they’d be able to sense that he was lying, that he was far more powerful than his file showed. On the ‘Canes, that had been easy. Nulls couldn’t perceive a display of Talent if it put on a frilly tutu and tap danced in front of them. Minor Talents weren’t much better. High level Talents could burn out a low level’s psyche if they weren’t careful, so most weaker Talents just blocked them out as much as they could. 

But Rittich was a T4. Sure, he wasn’t as powerful as Elias, but he’d been identified properly, if later in life than usual. He’d actually gotten education on how to use his Talent and work with others, instead of having to cobble things together on his own from hastily googled lesson plans and homegrown visualization exercises. He might be able to tell there was something off, and then what? If he went looking, he might actually find out the truth, and even other Talents could get... weird... about Primes. He might tell the FT&T, and they would tell the world. No one would ever let Elias play hockey again. 

Elias’s once firm foundation suddenly felt more like a house of cards. It would take so little to blow away years of hard work proving himself as a hockey player and reduce him down to nothing but a Prime. 

Respected, loved... carefully watched and regulated to avoid terrifying the populace. 

Unacceptable. 

He’d spent the rest of the summer before reporting to Calgary working on every shield and protection against Talent he could find, until his mind was more heavily armored than several tanks. It was the only thing he could think to do, other than just avoiding Rittich entirely. 

Hard to do that when you play for the same sports team and as such, are expected to spend large amounts of time in close proximity to each other.

* * *

Elias walked into the dressing room with his heart in his mouth and his mind locked down so tightly the neurons were almost creaking. The locker room was humming, there was so much mental energy being tossed around. It would almost feel nice, if he wasn’t terrified. A hand clapped him on the shoulder, and he almost jumped out of his skin. He had a sudden, terrifying thought that Ritter had seen him and figured it out and was about to denounce him. 

“Lindholm, right? Mark Giordano, call me Gio.” The man, Elias’s new captain, offered his hand. Relief flooded through him. In retrospect, that had been a bit paranoid. Elias took it, forcing his smile to remain genuine as his mind was flooded by Gio’s through the point of contact. The man was pondering how Elias was going to fit into the locker room, which at least was mostly easy to ignore. 

“Elias. The Canes called me Lindy.” He shook Gio’s hand, dropping it as soon as socially acceptable. The other didn’t seem to notice. Elias bit back a sigh of relief. First test- passed.

“Lindy it is then.” Gio gestured, pointing out the various guys that made up the Calgary Flames. “Looks like Coach wants to try you on a line with Johnny and Mony, over there.” He mentioned, gesturing to where Elias’s stall was set up, next to the two mentioned. Elias nodded, letting Gio continue with the roster. He finally wrapped up with their goalies, “Smitty, and of course, Ritter.” For the first time, Gio paused, darting an inscrutable look back at Elias. He raised an eyebrow in question. 

“I’m sure you’ve heard about Ritter. He’s a good goalie, though, and that’s all we care about, eh?” His eyes were hard. Elias blinked. 

He was fairly certain he’d just been warned not to be an ass to the goalie. Why they thought _Elias_ , of all people, was the one to warn, he wasn’t sure. 

“They didn’t tell you? I thought it was listed on my profile.” Gio cocked his head, and Elias grinned. “I’m a T12. I’m not like Ritter, but I’m still a Talent. Trust me, I’ve got no problems with a T4 playing hockey.”

Gio looked slightly sheepish, rubbing the back of his head. “I mean, that’s what we thought, but then one of the call ups last year was a T12, and... It’s just better to nip any problems in the bud, yeah?”

“Ah.” Elias nodded gamely. “You met one of the jealous ones.” He shook his head- some Talents just couldn’t handle that others were more powerful than they, never mind that if they really wanted to be more powerful, they just had to work at it. Sure, a T12 would never become a T2, but they could raise their levels by a few grades if they really tried. But why put in actual effort when instead, they could be jealous of someone born stronger than they? Elias didn’t get people like that. He’d been born with all the power a Talent could want, and it hadn’t done a single thing for him. “Nah man, I never cared about Talent. I’m here to play, and as long as he is too, we won’t have any issues.”

Gio nodded back. “Good.” He grinned. “Between you and me, I think Ritter’s looking forward to having another Talent on the roster permanently. The rest of us don’t always ‘get it’, you know.”

Elias shrugged. “I don’t know about that. T12s aren’t much different than someone who doesn’t have any Talent at all.” He warned. And Primes were a breed unto themselves as well, so. In either set-up, him and Ritter having much in common didn’t seem likely. 

Gio just patted his back. “You can read minds, man. I think you’ll have plenty to talk about.” He winked. “Especially the other team’s strategies, eh?”

Elias pulled back, scowling, as his heart dropped to his feet. If that was what the Flames expected from him... His stomach churned. “If you think- I’d never-“ He flailed for the proper English, his indignation wiping the right words from his mind. Elias frowned heavily, his accent thickening.

“Talents do our best not to invade privacy.” Elias finally said slowly, forcing the words to come out in the right language. “I have very little ability, but I still follow Talent ethics. I do not share anything I pick up.” 

Gio had his hands up, eyes wide. “Whoa. No man, nothing like that. When Ritter came on we all had a real long talk about Talents and how they work, I’d never ask you to do something like that. I was just joking around.”

Elias blinked, the sick feeling slowly fading. “Oh.” He offered Gio an apologetic smile. 

“Sorry. I am used to being the only Talent on a team, people have asked me... a lot of things. Some were... Not nice.” He explained, internally kicking himself. Assuming the worst of people was a habit he _had_ to break. He could have very easily fucked things up. People often got offended when they realized he thought they meant badly. Talents were supposed to know them better than that. Elias didn’t know how to explain to them that often it was just. So much easier to try and not read people at all. Too many people also got offended at the slightest suggestion he might have been prying into their head.

Gio patted him on the shoulder. “I got it, Lindy. It’s alright.” He offered Elias a conciliatory smile. “We’ll work it out.”

Elias nodded jerkily. “I should-“ He gestured at the stall with his name. Mercifully, Gio let him go. 

“Yeah, they’re going to want to start soon.” 

Elias hurried away. Introducing himself to the two- his potential linemates?- standing there, he offered a smile, and ever so delicately, thinned his shields. He’d work on learning their cues, but for now, one bad impression was more than he could afford to make. Gio seemed to have waved it off, but Elias didn’t want to take any chances. 

“Nice to meet you! I’m looking forward to playing with you!” Johnny practically bounced as he spoke. 

Well. Maybe Elias didn’t need to worry after all. Mony nodded, jerking a thumb towards Johnny. “What he said.” He paused, tilted his head. “Hey, could you, like, mentally link us while we’re playing? ‘Cause that would be _sick_.”

...Technically, yes, Elias could. It would take a bit more effort on his part, since the two wouldn’t be able to hold up their end of the connection on their own, but he could do it. But a _T12_ couldn’t, so he just shook his head with a smile. 

“No. And I think that that’s cheating, anyway.”

“Damn, really?” Mony looked _sad_ at the idea that Elias _wouldn’t_ be in his head, even just for a game.

“I told you so.” Johnny hissed in what he seemed to think was an undertone. “Besides, why would he want to be in _your_ head? I can’t even read minds and I know I wouldn’t want to find out what’s in yours.” 

Elias couldn’t stop the chuckle that slipped past his lips. They both looked at him, eyes wide. He could feel the tips of his ears going red, and his smile went sheepish. 

“Sorry, just. I think that’s the first time someone’s _wanted_ me to read their mind.” 

Johnny’s eyes, somehow, went wider. “Really? But mind reading is so _cool_! I’d really wished I could have had a Talent when I was a kid.” Elias tilted his head.

“But then you probably wouldn’t have played hockey.” He pointed out.

Johnny blinked, before gesturing at him, and then more wildly, presumably in the direction of the other Talent in the room. “But...?”

“I’m a T12. Barely any actual ability.” Elias explained. He’d had to say that more since joining the Flames than the past three years combined. He was very much looking forward to when everyone would figure it out and make him stop saying it. Just because he could lie didn’t mean he hadn’t had the Talent aversion to lying trained into him, same as the rest (it was just better for everyone when the people with powers had a strong code of ethics). The words were ashy in his mouth, but it was better than the alternative, Elias reminded himself. It was always better than the alternative. 

“I could play hockey because my Talent is very low level, it wouldn’t be useful to FT&T.” He continued. Johnny was listening raptly, like he’d never heard this before.

Actually, Elias could believe that. Johnny was a null, so he wouldn't have been forced to learn, and Elias was well acquainted with a hockey player’s tunnel vision. It was entirely possible Johnny had just ignored any discussion of Talent when it came up, too busy thinking about hockey.

“And Ritter?” Mony asked. “He’s pretty powerful, right?”

Elias nodded. “Yeah, he’s a T4, the fourth most powerful rank. And...” He grimaced. “You might not have heard anything, because here it only matters that he can play hockey, but he pissed off a lot of Talents when he told the FT&T to fuck off. He’s definitely not the usual, for Talents.” 

“Huh.” Mony offered. Johnny blinked.

“Whoa. That is just. So cool!” 

Elias had to laugh at that. “Yeah, it really is.” He agreed. Ritter was very cool, for what he’d done. Too bad Elias was terrified of talking to him and letting something slip. He really did want to tell Ritter how awesome it was, what he was doing. 

But then Peters was calling the room to order, and Elias didn’t have time to think about anything but not throwing up after _way_ too many suicides.

After practice, Elias had sat on the bench, still in full practice gear, just trying to catch his breath. It had felt good to get back on the ice, but holy fuck the Flames went _hard_. This was only the first day! He had his head down, chest heaving, when someone sat next to him. 

“Hey. Lindy, right?” An accented voice addressed him. Elias was fairly certain if he opened his mouth to try and talk, either wheezing sounds or vomit was going to come out- definitely not intelligible speech. He just nodded instead. His sudden company continued. 

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m David Rittich, but everyone calls me Ritter.” 

Elias froze. A high pitched whine was building in his ears. 

He was exhausted. He could _not_ deal with this. Not right now. He forced himself to turn his head anyway, looking over at Ritter properly for the first time.

It was like getting punched in the gut, when their eyes met. He’d always felt a low level of attraction for the other Talent, more admiration at what he’d done than anything else, but up close, David Rittich was _hot_. Maybe his face wasn’t the most conventionally handsome, but it looked like it was made for smiling, like it was now, brown eyes warm as they crinkled up at Elias. It certainly didn’t hurt that as a hockey player, he was strong and fit either. Shit, Elias had caught a glimpse of abs when they were changing that he kind of wanted to drool over. 

Elias had always admired the guy, had sometimes wished he could talk to him, as one Talented hockey player to another, but the physical aspect had never come into play. Until now. Now, Elias was looking at one of the hottest guys he had ever met. That seed of admiration was quickly blossoming into a full, attraction fed and lust watered _crush_.

Oh no. 

Elias could _not_ be expected to deal with the fact that the one guy on the Flames he could never risk being close to was also the guy he kind of wanted to kiss. A lot. And do _way_ more besides. Rittich was really cute, ok? Elias couldn’t be judged for where his mind wandered when _that_ was looking at him.

He could only be grateful for how hard Coach had run them today, because any heat tinting his face and ears could be blamed on practice, and not on any untoward thoughts he might be harboring. He strengthened his shields too, just in case they’d slipped. Breaking eye contact, Elias hurriedly stood.

“Yeah man, it’s nice to meet you too.” He finally said. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Look, I’ve gotta hit the showers before I pass out.”

He didn’t wait for Ritter to say anything more, just tossing a wave over his shoulder as he practically jogged down the tunnel back to the locker room.

He was going to need a long, long shower before he was even remotely ready to try to figure out where he was supposed to go from here.

* * *

Over the next month, Elias felt like he had settled into the Flames decently well. His line was meshing on the ice, and the rest of the team was nice too. Even Ritter, though Elias tried not to spend too much time with him. It wasn’t too hard- they were friends with different people, so it wasn’t as though they’d be hanging out outside of their job. Elias tried to be friendly but professional at the rink, and he thought he’d pulled it off well. No one was pulling him aside to ask him why he was being an asshole to the goalie, anyway, and that was good enough for Elias. 

Ritter was friendly right back, often times more so than Elias, which did nothing for his crush (which he definitely hadn’t figured out how to deal with) _or_ his desire to keep his level of Talent a secret. 

Keeping his shields high enough to prevent Ritter from reading him and discovering either issue was a strain at times, but worth it. Elias might have actually died of embarrassment if he’d accidentally broadcast how much he liked Ritter’s biceps. He’d _definitely_ have died if, after how much effort he’d put into keeping things under wraps, he managed to just... Tell Ritter everything by sheer accident. 

Avoiding touching Ritter and rendering most of those shields moot was sometimes more difficult, and had necessitated Elias having what seemed to him like a slightly stalkerish level of awareness of Ritter’s movements every time they were in the same room. It was worth it, though, to be able to avoid running into the man, and honestly, those first few incidents where he’d lost track of Ritter and had to hastily back away from contact were enough to convince Elias that just keeping track of Ritter was the lesser of two evils.

The first time it happened, Ritter had surprised him by flopping down next to him at the table while the team was out to eat. Ritter generally sat with Smitty or Chucky, so Elias hadn’t been expecting it. Every nerve screaming at the sudden proximity, Elias had startled worse than a spooked deer, and gotten more than a few weird looks, as well as a surprised one from Ritter.

“You alright there?”

Coughing, Elias had had to play it off. “Yeah, you just surprised me. I was lost in thought and didn’t see you coming.” He’d had to bullshit. Ritter had looked a bit skeptical, but fortunately Mony chose that moment to start chirping Elias for practically throwing his drink, he’d jumped so badly. In the ensuing mass of chirps, Ritter relaxed, shaking off whatever suspicions he’s had, and even joined in. 

The next time, he’d been walking by Elias on the bus towards the bathroom and had lost his balance when they hit a pothole. His hand had landed on Elias’s shoulder, and Elias had frozen, every muscle tensing up until he probably looked more like a statue than a person. He’d edged out from under Ritter’s hand as soon as the goalie was upright and balanced again, forcing a smile. “Careful.” He’d teased, tongue leaden in his mouth at how close Ritter’s fingers had come to the bare skin of his neck. His shoulder felt like Ritter’s handprint had been branded into it, even through his shirt. “Fall like that and you’ll mess up that pretty face, and then where will you be?”

(Flirting with Ritter had _not_ been part of the plan, but even Elias sometimes had impulses.)

Ritter had laughed, but there’d been a strange look in his eyes when he’d patted Elias on the shoulder- Elias had managed to control the jump his muscles wanted to make that time- and continued on his way.

The time after that, well. Elias would rather just. Erase his memory of it. Or erase everyone else’s, he wasn’t picky. Literally _leaping_ off the bench away from Ritter as he walked by... Well. Elias had no excuse for that one, except that Ritter’s arm had almost brushed his cheek and he’d panicked, not that he could tell the rest of the team that. That entire incident had been just embarrassing, and he still wasn’t sure how he’d managed to talk his way out of that one. Ritter, at least, hadn’t believed whatever excuse he’d managed to concoct. His eyes had been solemn, even as he laughed with the rest of the locker room at the way Elias had gone ass over head off the bench. It had certainly driven the point home. He couldn’t just dodge Ritter whenever he got too close. It was too obvious. He was going to have to be _strategic_ about this. 

So yeah, keeping track of Ritter at all times was definitely the better option. Sure, it made him _feel_ like a stalker, but the other option just made him look like an asshole. Constantly making obvious refusals to so much as touch a telepath definitely implied that you had a problem with said telepath, which Elias emphatically did not. He liked Ritter a little _too_ much, if anything. 

He just couldn’t risk Ritter reading his mind. Ever. 

Ok, admittedly that _did_ make it sound like he had a problem with Ritter. Good thing he wasn’t trying to explain this to anyone out loud. 

Still, Elias figured he had it under control now. There hadn’t been an incident in _weeks_. He could play on a team with the man without having to spend a lot of time around him, and he could definitely do it without having skin to skin contact.

Most of all, he could do it without anyone catching on that he didn’t want to be in close contact with the other Talent.

He wouldn’t realize quite how much he’d tempted fate with those words for some time.

* * *

The first time he ran into Ritter on his own, Elias wasn’t expecting it.

(Which was ironic, really. He’d spent an entire _summer_ planning out ways to make sure Ritter wouldn’t find him out while still maintaining a good team atmosphere, and even gone to the effort of learning to track Ritter’s movements just so that he could avoid ever running into Ritter around the team. Yet, somehow, he’d neglected to think of what to do if they just. Bumped into each other randomly, by themselves. 

With the benefit of hindsight, Elias could admit that that had been something of a glaring oversight. Not that that would help him now.)

He’d been toweling his face and hair as he hopped off the bike and headed towards the door. Elias had wanted nothing more than a long, hot shower and a huge plate of pasta, and he wasn’t looking as he walked, too busy trying to get the sweat out of his eyes. Today’s practice had been killer; the only reason Elias was still around was because he’d lost track of time while cooling down. There was no reason for anyone else to be hanging around, so Elias had felt no shame in yanking his shirt, soaked through with sweat, off, as he made a beeline for the showers. 

“Ooof.” The breath knocked out of him by the sudden collision, he reeled back a step. Looking up, he instantly felt his face get hot. 

Staggering back himself from the force they ran into each other with, was Ritter, equally as sweat soaked, but _far_ more gorgeous. 

Shit. 

“Whoa, goalie interference is still a penalty even if we’re off the ice.” Ritter joked. His eyes flickered down, before returning to meet Elias’s eyes. Elias’s face warmed even more. He was sure he resembled a tomato by this point. Mentally, he started running through every curse he knew, in every language he spoke and a few he didn’t. 

This was exactly the scenario he’d needed to avoid, running into a _T4_ when his shields might not be full strength, distracted as he had been by the desire for a shower and food and believing himself to be alone. “I- sorry.” He choked out, backing up another step, shoulders hunching down involuntarily. 

Every inch of skin currently exposed felt like it was burning (and not just from how badly he was blushing). It would be so easy for Ritter to brush against him, not even meaning to, and pick up something Elias couldn’t afford for him to find out. 

“You ok?” Ritter reached out as if to steady him. He must really look bad. Elias took another step back. He was starting to panic. He hadn’t planned for this, how had he not planned for this? He was throwing up shield after shield as fast as he could, but that was _now_. Not when they’d run into each other. Oh god. He’d only bothered with basic shields during his cooldown because he hadn’t thought anyone was still around. Basic shields were like paper, it was totally possible for Ritter to pick up his thoughts without even touching, and _Elias had run right into him_.

“Yeah- yeah, I’m fine.” He forced out. Ritter took a step forward. Elias took a step back, feeling his back hit the wall. He felt like cornered prey, staring helplessly with wide eyes as the man who could ruin everything paused, looking... Hurt? Ritter held his hands out, palm up.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He said softly.

Which... obviously? Elias didn’t make a habit of playing on the same team as people that were inclined to injure him. Ritter was no exception to that. Elias just stared at him, confused. Ritter looked even sadder at that, for some reason. 

“You flinch away from me. You always have so many shields up, I can barely feel you. You avoid me.” Ritter said, quiet. “It’s... it’s like you’re afraid of me.”

Elias blinked. Afraid? 

Well. Yes. He was afraid. He was terrified that Ritter was going to find out that he was a Prime and blow the lid off of a secret that he’d spent over ten years working to keep hidden. But somehow, he didn’t think that was what Ritter meant. Ritter would have to know he was keeping a secret to know he was scared of it being revealed. 

No, Ritter sounded like...

“I don’t know what kind of experience you’ve had with high level Talents in the past that’s made you so jumpy, but I promise, I’m very careful.” Ritter said earnestly. “I’d never do anything to hurt you. I’d never use my Talent against you.” He shrugged then, a sad smile on his face at whatever expression Elias was making. Elias himself wasn’t sure. “And maybe that’s hard to believe, but... Give me a chance to prove I’m not like whoever hurt you?” He looked so fucking _hopeful_ , but also... Resigned. 

Oh.

Oh _shit_

Elias felt his heart sink. 

He’d been an asshole to the goalie. 

He’d been an utter _asshole_ , and no one else had known to call him on it because Elias and Ritter were the _only two Talents on the team_. They’d all seen exactly what Elias had wanted them to- two teammates, friendly, sure, but not friends. No one thought the whole team needed to be best friends with each other, so Elias being friendly, but making his friends elsewhere, wasn’t a big deal. 

But Elias and Ritter were the only two Talents. Something like that definitely had a tendency to bond people, and furthermore, Ritter was a high level Talent breaking out of the mold he’d been forced into, much to the derision of most of the other Talents in the _world_. Talents he could feel comfortable being around were probably in short supply, these days. 

Hell, Gio had mentioned it on Elias’s first day here, how much Ritter had been looking forward to having another Talent around on a permanent basis. He hadn’t said it outright, but Elias knew how to read into what wasn’t said. 

Ritter was _lonely_. 

He’d done the same thing Elias had, eschewing his Talent in favor of his hockey, only he’d done it openly, not in secret where no one could judge. And he’d been reviled for it.

God, how happy must he have been to hear they were getting another Talent, even just a T12, that also played hockey? He’d probably been wishing for the same thing Elias had, for someone who understood _everything_ he dealt with on a regular basis. That first day, when he’d come up to Elias after practice and introduced himself- he’d probably been trying to befriend Elias.

And Elias had blown him off. 

Elias had avoided him as much as humanly possible.

Worst of all... Elias had made Ritter think he was _afraid_ of him. Of his Talent.

He’d made Ritter think Elias believed he might _hurt_ him, despite Ritter doing absolutely _nothing_ to suggest that was a possibility.

(High level Talents could literally burn the psychic ability out of low level Talents. At best, it scarred them permanently, at worst it could render them brain dead. It was usually an accident, a Talent that wasn’t fully trained failing to realize they were overwhelming the weaker person, but. There had been cases of a T2 doing it on purpose a few decades ago. It was one of the reasons they tried to identify Talents young, now. So that they could teach them the proper ethics of using their powers, and to weed out those that might abuse them.) 

To _ever_ make Ritter feel like Elias had lumped him in with that kind of person... His stomach burned and Elias had to swallow back bile. No. Never. He’d never once even dreamed that Ritter might be like that- he did know Ritter, at least a little, and the idea was unthinkable. And yet, his actions had made Ritter believe otherwise. How that must have cut made Elias feel ready to throw up all over again. 

He was the one person Ritter had hoped would understand, and Elias had rejected him, on the basis of his Talent. 

Just like everyone else. 

Sure, his reasons had been different, and Elias still believed those reasons were valid, but from the outside Ritter couldn’t know that. All he’d be able to see was another Talent that wanted nothing to do with him. 

Elias had never felt more like scum in his _life_. 

He’d been staring at Ritter as the realization flashed through his mind, deathly silent, and he could tell the instant he’d let it go too long. 

Ritter’s shoulders slumped, and he started to back away. “I am sorry, I should not have cornered you.” He was saying, but Elias could barely focus on the words. Ritter was practically _broadcasting_ misery, waves so strong they were practically hammering Elias’s shields, and before he could think, Elias was snapping a hand out. 

“Wait!” 

Ritter’s wrist felt fever-hot under his fingers. They both froze. Ritter was gaping at him in shock. 

Elias was in shock himself. He _never_ initiated contact with someone else if he could help it. Sure, he’d go along with it if someone else wanted to shake his hand or something (he couldn’t not, really), but generally, Elias avoided human contact off the ice wherever possible. 

He was still holding Ritter’s wrist. Elias dropped it like it had actually burned him, flushing an even deeper red. 

“I. Sorry.” He mumbled. Ritter looked even sadder at that.

Elias was really fucking this up, wasn’t he.

“I’m not afraid of you.” He finally said, looking up to catch Ritter’s eyes. They caught and held. Elias was probably almost purple now, his blush was so hot, but he forced himself to continue. “I don’t think you’re going to hurt me.” He paused, and added. “I’ve never had a problem with other Talents.” He wasn’t traumatized, no matter what conclusions Ritter had drawn. Ritter blinked, but it looked like he believed Elias. Thank god. The last thing he needed was someone thinking he had Talent related trauma and just wasn’t admitting to it. 

Now came the tricky part. Lying about his reasons (because Ritter would definitely want an explanation) without lying as much as possible. 

“I’m just. Not really used to being around other Talents a lot.” He explained. That much was certainly true. Elias had made a point of it, actually. “The ‘Canes were all nulls, so. Things were different.” Truth. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was avoiding you.” Also true. He’d wanted to avoid Ritter without anyone noticing it. “I guess I just didn’t really know what I was supposed to do? I’ve never met a T4 before and I didn’t want to make things worse for you by, like, accidentally projecting or something. People have told me that other Talents read more clearly? So I figured I probably shouldn’t crowd you too much.” Also true, though it was more like Elias hadn’t wanted to make life more difficult for himself. 

“I’m really low leveled, almost null, actually, so sometimes I can’t tell if I’m just thinking really loudly or if my Talent is actually doing something.”

Big. Fat. Whopping. Lie. 

God, it was a good thing Elias was already red, because he felt like blushing just from telling that much of a blatant falsehood. There was a _reason_ he preferred to just let people see his file and make their own assumptions. 

“I thought it would just be easier to keep my shields up. Keeps me from accidentally reading someone or from broadcasting without realizing.” That was true. That was very true, but it was because Elias had more Talent than he knew what to do with, not because he had so little he sometimes couldn’t tell if he was using it at all. And he really needed to stop mentally commenting on his own statements, because that would be hard to explain if Ritter picked it up. Finally done with his cobbled together explanation, Elias just offered Ritter a shrug. 

“Sorry.” He said again, because he really was sorry he had hurt Ritter. 

Ritter blinked, looking somewhat overwhelmed by Elias’s rapid fire babble. But then, slowly, a smile began to spread across his face. 

It was like staring at the sun. Elias stared dazedly, abruptly overwhelmed. 

Ritter was gorgeous all the time, but fuck, he was _blinding_ when he was happy. It made Elias want to do something, anything, to keep him that way. 

“You don’t have to worry about overwhelming me.” Ritter said softly, that sun-bright smile still on his face. “Actually, I was kind of... looking forward to having someone to share with?” He extended a hand towards Elias again, that same hopeful look from before appearing. 

_Share what?_ Elias didn’t ask. It was pretty obvious, anyway. Talents- especially high level ones- weren’t good at living inside just one skull. He’d discovered that himself when he was younger, much to his chagrin. They just weren’t built for it. In the Talent classes Elias had attended- before the weakness of his Talent and the strength of his hockey meant that the administrators didn’t see the point in wasting a schedule slot on them anymore- the instructors had often talked about while it might be more comfortable to communicate entirely mentally, it was rude to those that weren’t telepathic and couldn’t keep up with the conversation. Elias had gotten used to the isolation- most of the other Talents didn’t really expect him to get it anyway- but Ritter, even if he’d been discovered late, probably hadn’t. At least, not until he’d finally managed to break away from FT&T and ended up on a team full of psychic nulls that were both harder to keep up a connection with and generally disapproved of having other people living in their heads. 

Ritter’s smile had softened, but it was no less hopeful. Elias was powerless. In the face of that hope, and the still lingering realization that he’d managed to hurt Ritter with what he’d done, Elias was completely helpless to stop what happened next. 

He slowly reached out, and took Ritter’s hand.

If he’d thought Ritter’s smile was bright before...

_:You have a really nice smile.:_ Elias ‘pathed, and immediately flushed. His first time talking mentally to someone in _years_ , and _that_ was what he went with? Jesus. He kept the next thought deeper down, hopefully away from even the strength of a touch reading- way to make his crush super fucking obvious. 

Ritter’s smile got impossibly happier. He laughed, which over the link felt more like the warmth from a perfect ray of sunshine. _:Thank you.:_ He replied. It very obviously wasn’t just for the compliment. Elias could feel it, the bone deep delight and happiness Ritter was feeling at having another Talent to share with. Nulls minds were different- not bad, but. Elias could understand how Ritter had ended up feeling so lonely. 

Ritter raised an eyebrow, and Elias flushed deeper. He was going to have to work on the division of private and public thought again. 

_:You noticed that?:_ Ritter didn’t sound upset, at least. Elias nodded sheepishly.

_:Not right away.:_ He admitted. _:I’m used to being the only Talent. I didn’t think you would be different until I started thinking about it.:_ He paused, then quietly added. _:I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner. I didn’t mean to make you think...:_ He trailed off, before finally just sending a burst of the tangled up emotions and thought fragments that made up exactly how he felt about the idea of being afraid that Ritter would hurt him. Ritter blinked, before laughing again. He squeezed Elias’s hand, before- his mind flashing with regret- he let go. 

“I really missed that.” He said out loud. “Thanks, Lindy.” He sighed. “Too bad we can’t do that more often.” He said wistfully, and Elias blinked, broadcasting his confusion because he wasn’t sure what to ask. Why did Ritter think that this was the end of it? 

(Ok. If Elias was smart, it would be the end of it. But... Obviously Ritter could read him, at least a little. So why was he acting like they wouldn’t be able to share at all?)

Ritter shrugged at him. “Your shields are... very good. I can’t read you at all without the contact.” He said, with a tiny half smile that just looked _wrong_ after the delighted smile he’d just worn so well.

On one hand... Good to know. Elias was kind of glad all that work had paid off. On the other... Ritter was looking resigned again. Shit. Sharing- even the surface level, practically small talk they’d engaged in- had been enough to make Ritter light up. Making him go back to being alone again... Didn’t feel right. _And it would be such an easy fix, too._ Elias swallowed hard, unable to believe he was even contemplating this. But it would make Ritter _so happy_. He had to fight the urge to close his eyes. He was going to do this, wasn’t he. God, he was an _idiot_. 

Carefully, Elias flexed the shields around his mind, lifting away the heavy duty shields he’d made around his mind. Bit by bit, he let them fall, rebuilding them into something a bit more... open. Lighter shields to cover everything and keep him from being flooded, with a deeper shield making a partition between the thoughts he wanted to broadcast and his own, private musings. Now, instead of a foreboding fortress, his mind was more like a house- perfectly accessible as long as you had an invitation. 

And to make that clear...

_:How about now?:_ He ‘pathed. 

Ritter’s smile was _incandescent_.

* * *

As it turned out, spending half of his time sharing headspace with the guy he had a crush on made it really, _really_ hard to get over said crush.

Because as if it wasn’t enough to know that Ritter was really, stupidly attractive, now Elias had Ritter _in his head_ laughing with him about Johnny still couldn’t grow a beard or how red Coach got after every time they messed up a drill or how Nealer’s hair had a hilarious cowlick in back that he hadn’t noticed yet- and then the meltdown when he did. It did things to a guy, having their crush’s sunny laugh echoing in their head all the damn time. Elias was not ashamed to admit it. (To himself, at least, deep down where Ritter wouldn’t pick up even a hint of it.) Maybe it was pathetic, to have to fight down a flash of arousal every time Ritter chuckled, low and delighted and warm like melted chocolate in his head, but whatever. It was a really nice chuckle. 

_:Did you see that blood vessel twitching? He looked ready to have an aneurysm!:_ Ritter shared gleefully after one hilariously messed up drill. His laugh tasted like starlight and was twice as beautiful. It invited people to join in. Elias had to bite his lip to keep from laughing too, and risk getting in even more trouble. 

_:He just went purple. Uh-oh...:_ Elias ‘pathed back, just to watch Ritter struggle not to laugh out loud. 

And that wasn’t the end of it. Before, Ritter had never so much as brushed Elias’s skin (he’d realized later that even the incidents he remembered with such chagrin, Ritter’s hand had only landed on clothed shoulders or legs, never Elias’s bared skin). Now, he never seemed to _stop_. He was always throwing an arm around Elias’s shoulders, or bumping his hip against Elias’s when he wanted attention. It didn’t matter if they were on the ice and in full pads or fresh out of the showers in nothing but a towel, he _kept doing it_ , long past the time Elias had thought it would take for the novelty of being able to to wear off. 

And it kept setting Elias on _fire_. It wasn’t fucking fair. Ritter was fucking _hot_ , ok, and he kept _touching him_ , casual hugs and nudges that meant nothing to him and everything to Elias. 

(Incidentally, Elias was getting very good at compartmentalizing. And hiding boners. The two skills had more in common than you might think.)

And with all of this, the joking and the touching and the goddamn fucking sunshine smiles, Ritter just kept... Being there. In his head, by his side, sharing his goddamn headspace with Elias, and Elias just. Fell even fucking harder. 

Because it was one thing for Ritter to be hot. 

It was entirely another for him to be probably one of the most amazing human beings Elias had ever met. And fuck, but he really, really was. Knowing that, how could Elias deny him anything? 

He couldn’t, not really. 

They locked down their shields during their games, sure, neither of them wanted to risk the distraction, but every other time they were together became fair game. Ritter barely had to tap on Elias’s shields before Elias let him in, and soon, they were linked more often than not. It was actually pretty fucking great. 

Talents weren’t built for being alone, after all. Not even Elias, no matter how long he’d managed before. 

The team caught on pretty quick. Elias supposed it _was_ pretty obvious when they both burst out laughing in unison at something Fro had muttered to Ritter. Or how they always knew where the other was- it actually became kind of a _thing_. Want to find Ritter? Ask Lindy, and vice versa. If they weren’t together, they always knew exactly where to find the other one. It was probably good that they weren’t playing on the same line, because the sheer spatial awareness they were starting to develop for each other was almost concerning, and would _definitely_ count as cheating.

Mostly, the team took it well. Hanny had taken to giving Elias puzzled looks, like he wasn’t sure who Elias was anymore. Elias had never been as free with his Talent with the ‘Canes, but it wasn’t like he’d had someone to share this with there. Gio had just smiled benevolently, a proud dad watching two of his kids getting along. 

Chucky hadn’t said anything to Elias- they weren’t that close- but Elias had heard him asking Ritter if he was ok anyway. Elias supposed it was a little strange, to go from not talking at all to being the mental version of attached at the hip, but he was a still a little offended that Chucky’s immediate assumption was that Elias must have done something to make Ritter want to share headspace with him. 

Mony had faked a scowl at Elias as they waited for their turn on a drill. “Oh, sure, you can do the awesome mind meld with Ritter, but not with us? Lame, man. That can’t even help you out on the ice.” The scowl had melted into a grin even as he’d tried to scold Elias. Elias had just grinned at him. 

Johnny had been wide eyed. “Wow. That is still just so cool.” He’d breathed. Elias had just nodded, eyes bright. His smile had probably been a little too happy, but. He really was enjoying having someone that understood. Ritter had hummed in agreement, in the corner of Elias’s mind that was rapidly becoming his.

(Ritter might have been more obviously lonely, but that didn’t mean Elias hadn’t missed it too. Ritter wasn’t the only one that wasn’t built for living in one skull.) 

They didn’t always talk. In fact, through most practices, they didn’t say anything, just kept a little corner of their minds open to each other. Constant conversation could be exhausting, and sometimes all they really needed was to know they weren’t alone.

In fact, sometimes Elias had to remind himself when he was home alone that he definitely _should not_ have the range to talk to Ritter across the city. He’d nearly slipped up a few times, something funny on TV or a new recipe he wanted to try making him reach out without even thinking to tell Ritter. Once, he’d gotten close enough to brush Ritter’s mind- thankfully catching himself before giving Ritter more than the barest nudge. 

The next day at practice, Ritter had poked him. “Think you’re getting stronger, Lindy.” He’d murmured, before linking in to the lighter shielded quasi-public portion of Elias’s mind- Elias had finally given up on inviting Ritter every single time and done the telepath equivalent of giving him a key. Only to the outer shields, of course, but still. (Elias couldn’t believe he was this dumb, but Ritter would smile at him and Elias would just. Forget that he had secrets he needed to protect and just let Ritter do whatever he wanted. God he was stupid for that smile.)

_:I think I felt you brush my shields last night, at home.:_ He continued telepathically. Elias flushed- an unsettlingly common experience around Ritter. 

_:Sorry about that.:_ He ‘pathed. _:I’d been thinking about something I’d wanted to tell you, and I guess I just automatically reached out. Didn’t think I’d actually reach you though. I didn’t mean to disturb you.:_ He added, layering the words with his apology. 

Ritter did the mental equivalent of flicking Elias’s apology away. _:Don’t apologize, that’s awesome! Didn’t you tell me that you got excused from classes after awhile because your Talent was so weak they decided that it wasn’t worth working with you anymore? So now, if you’re getting stronger, that means they were full of shit! Besides,:_ Ritter added, glee underlying every ‘pathed word, _:If your range is increasing, that means we can talk more!:_

Elias smiled, mouth tasting like ash behind the sugary veneer of happiness. It was a lot harder to outright lie when someone was in your head, so he just let Ritter’s comment on his supposed level of Talent go by without audible remark. Behind the deepest of his shields, he admitted the truth, if only to himself. He’d made the instructors see what he wanted them to- faked being awful at every aspect of being a telepathic Talent until even the most patient instructor had thrown up her hands in defeat. He hadn’t liked disappointing her, but it was for the best. She had wanted him to get stronger so that he could go work for FT&T. Elias had wanted to play hockey. They’d clashed about it frequently. 

_:Are you sure?:_ He ‘pathed instead of telling Ritter any of that. _:I thought you might be getting sick of me.:_

_:Sick? Of you? Never!:_ Ritter jostled him, grinning. Elias grinned back, heart thumping hard at the idea of Ritter wanting him around all the time. He knew Ritter didn’t _really_ mean it, that he was just joking around, but it was a nice thought anyway. One that honestly, he probably liked a little _too_ much. 

_:You’ll regret that when I start streaming all of Nailed It into your head.:_ Elias warned, his amusement underpinning the words and lightening the threat as he leaned into Ritter’s shoulder. Ritter was warm and solid with muscle against his side, and Elias had to hold back from just fucking snuggling into him. It felt nice, sue him. 

Ritter laughed out loud at that, drawing everyone’s eyes. Nealer rolled his eyes. “Talents.” He muttered, shaking his head, but sounding fond under the exasperation. Gio sighed, but the glance he threw at them was equally fond, his eyes soft. Everyone liked it when the locker room gelled, and it was obvious how much the mood had improved once the two Talents started actually getting along.

Well. Most everyone’s mood had improved. Chucky was watching Ritter from his stall, a crease between his eyebrows. Elias paused, internally debating if he should point it out to Ritter. He didn’t bury it deep enough, however, to escape notice, and Ritter poked his ribs. 

_:Point out what?:_

Elias debated for a second, Ritter’s poking turning mental as well as physical. _:Hey, quit it.:_ He caught the probe and shoved it back, making a face at Ritter. _:You know that tickles.:_

Ritter snorted, but pulled back, limiting himself to one pointy finger being jammed repeatedly into Elias’s ribs. _:Only you, Lindy, would be more mentally ticklish than physically. But seriously, what are you wondering if I should know?:_

Elias sighed and gave in, darting his eyes to where Chucky’s creased eyebrows have graduated to a full on sad frown. _:Got any idea what’s going on there? Because I think he can’t decide if he wants to pout or rip my head off:_ And really, Matthew fucking Tkachuk was not someone who should be pouting. Ever. It really didn’t suit his face. 

Ritter followed his gaze, picking up his thoughts seamlessly. 

_:Huh.:_ His mental tone was blank. Elias couldn’t pick anything up from him, which was weird. Ritter was normally a pretty expressive guy, but now there was just... nothing. 

_:Huh?:_ Elias asked. 

_:You’re right.:_ Ritter ‘pathed absently. _:Matty isn’t really a pouter.:_ He patted Elias’s shoulder and stood. _:Thanks, Lindy.:_ He said, before just fucking _cutting the link_. 

Elias blinked after him, feeling as if he was reeling, off balance. Ritter had never just cut the link off like that. Usually they just let it fade naturally as distance did its job. Well. Ritter did. Elias just kept track of how far Ritter had gone before allowing it to fade, given that he could probably link with Ritter halfway around the world now, he’d become so attuned to Ritter’s mind. 

The point was, they usually took some care in disentangling their minds. But not this time, and Elias wasn’t sure how he felt about any of this. Either the sudden cut as soon as Ritter noticed there was something wrong with Chucky (he buried the jealous voice pointing out how Ritter had never been so concerned about _Elias_ as far down as his deepest private shields could go) or how Elias had gotten so used to having someone else in his head so quickly after spending years on his own. He stared after where Ritter had gone, sitting next to Chucky, their heads leaned together. 

Someone sat next to him, bumping his shoulder. “Hey man, what’s up?” Elias blinked and glanced over. Hanny was giving him a concerned frown. Elias forced a smile. 

“Not much. You?” 

Hanny just raised an eyebrow. “Sure.” He drawled. “And you’re totally ok right now and haven’t been staring into space after Ritter for almost five minutes.” The sarcasm was entirely unnecessary. Elias frowned at him. 

“It has _not_ been five minutes.” Ritter had only just left! 

Hanny pointed at the clock. It was actually closer to six minutes now. 

Elias swore under his breath. He’d paused right in the middle of changing, so he was only half dressed, and practice was supposed to start in a few minutes. He hurriedly shoved his feet into his skates and started lacing them, Hanny doing a very bad job of hiding that he was laughing at him. 

Elias finished getting dressed for practice right before Coach walked in, and he hid a sigh of relief. Hanny bumped him again. “But for real man, I don’t think I’ve seen you look that wrong footed since we got traded. You sure you’re alright?” 

Elias managed another smile. “I’m fine.” He said. He was feeling off balance, but he’d be fine. He’d spent years without anyone in his head- having to deal with one day without Ritter sharing headspace with him was nothing. He’d be fine. 

He was not fine. 

His brain felt like something had been jolted off its track, and it was fucking with him in every other way possible. He was half beat off in every drill, waiting for an internal shift that never came. His feet kept insisting on trying to tangle themselves up, and it was taking an inordinate amount of concentration to make sure he moved the correct foot at the appropriate time. Coach had gone from giving him exasperated looks, to angry glares, to watching him with poorly concealed concern.

Mony just looked disgusted with him, but Johnny and Hanny were both giving him worried Looks whenever they thought he wasn’t watching. Elias gritted his teeth. 

This was ridiculous. He and Ritter locked things down for every game and it had _never _affected him like this. _’Ritter had never cut the connection off and abandoned you for someone else before either.’_ The jealous voice was back. Elias shoved it down again. Even if that was the case, Elias had functioned without another Talent in his head for years. There was no way he’d become this dependent on sharing with Ritter in such a short amount of time. _’You’d hated being alone, though. You **like** having Ritter in your head.’_ This was turning into a game of whack-a-mole against his exceedingly irritating subconscious, and Elias _did not___ appreciate it. 

So what if he liked it! Even though he didn’t need it, it was still nice! Elias glowered at the ice as Coach blew the whistle, giving them a few minutes break. Chucky instantly took off from where he!d been standing. And there was the last part of the things throwing Elias off- at every break or stop, Chucky or Ritter would skate right over to each other, having a hushed conversation that would continue on until the next drill was ready to go. Then they’d go practice, and the second the drill was over, they were right back at it, ignoring everyone else. 

All the while, Ritter’s shields were locked down tight. He’d called Elias’s shields good, before, so what did that make those, Elias wondered. Ritter had shut down _hard_ , shields so thick they blocked even the awareness of Ritter’s presence, turning Ritter’s chunk of ice into a complete void to Elias’s senses. It was... Unsettling, to say the least. Elias shook his head and turned back to the drill they were being set to run. Dwelling on this was not going to help at all. 

Finally, practice ended, Coach sending them home with what Elias was pretty sure was an expression of disgust just for him. He couldn’t even blame Coach. He’d done so badly it was a miracle he hadn’t been scratched for the game later that week. Hanny had kept nudging him, making a face like he wanted to know if Elias wanted to talk.

Elias definitely did _not_ want to talk. 

He wanted to talk even less as he watched Ritter and Chucky leave together, heads tucked close and Ritter’s arm looped around Chucky’s shoulders, as they still kept fucking talking. Ritter hadn’t even glanced Elias’s way, and his shields were still higher than Elias had ever seen before. Elias didn’t even dare reach out, to even try. He retreated behind his own shields, building them high into the familiar fortress. 

It was like the past month hadn’t even happened. 

Elias had to bite his lip at that, blood welling up, trying to force his eyes dry. 

Denial could only go so far, and even if he was still confident he’d be able to adjust to being alone in his head again (he’d have to), he could admit it hurt on a much deeper level. This last month had, entirely without his conscious consent, built up hope that maybe Ritter could like him back- even if it could never go anywhere. But his subconscious didn’t care about that, and it had gone about building up his treacherous feelings, giving him hope that something that would never be would happen. 

That hope had just been thoroughly crushed, and it _hurt_. 

Elias just shook his head at Hanny when the defenseman knocked their shoulders together again. “See you tomorrow, man.” He said, knowing he sounded tired and defeated and not fucking caring. He just wanted to go home. Hanny frowned, but let him go. 

“Later.” His tone said there would be a reckoning if Elias didn’t sort his shit out soon. Elias didn’t care. He left without even bothering to shower. He could do that at home, away from the entire team’s prying eyes. 

At home, showered and clean, he changed into his comfiest sweats and grabbed the carton of chocolate ice cream he kept stashed at the very back of his freezer. Today was a day to cheat on his diet if there ever was one. Turning on the TV, Netflix automatically popped up from last night’s session. On the screen, a new episode of Nailed It was queued, and Elias had to turn away as his eyes filled with tears. It was just a stupid TV show... That he’d been jokingly threatening to live stream into Ritter’s head today, alight with the possibilities of being allowed to link with Ritter even when they were both at home. 

Before... Before Ritter had made it clear that Elias meant nothing to him compared to Chucky. The way they’d left today... The ice cream turned bitter in his mouth. They had been close. Closer than Elias had ever seen them off the ice, and that made him wonder. Maybe Chucky had been glaring at Elias because he could recognize someone crushing on Ritter through personal experience? 

Elias felt like he was swallowing ash. Had this past month pushed Chucky into daring what Elias never could, and confessing? 

He cursed his decision to shut out as much external input as he could. Reading people with his Talent, while easy for someone of his level, could also become rapidly overwhelming, and so Elias preferred to block them out as much as possible. So he had no idea what Chucky might have been feeling- only what Ritter had done the second Elias had pointed out Chucky seemed upset. 

And that was... pretty damning.

Elias fell onto his side, curling up into a ball and burying his face in the couch cushions.

Tomorrow, he’d work on getting over his crush, he promised himself. He’d be the best damn teammate they could ask for, and he’d play his heart out, and he’d _get over Ritter_. 

Tomorrow. 

Tears slipped from under his eyelids, soaking into the couch as Elias cried in silence. 

Tonight, he needed to let himself mourn for a hope he hadn’t realized he’d been harboring before it died.

* * *

Game day, eyes red but dry, Elias built his shields as high as they would go, and walked into the dressing room. Ritter was sitting next to Chucky on the bench, smiling and teasing. Chucky’s smile was almost glowing, it was so bright. (Ritter isn’t smiling like he did when you shared with him for the first time, the nasty voice in Elias’s head whispered. Elias ignored it. He had to.)

They were cute together. Elias could admit that, even as jealousy burned in the pit of his stomach, souring his mood. He turned away, heading for his stall. He didn’t know what kind of expression was on his face, but Johnny jumped as Elias sat down next to him, a hastily stifled yelp nearly escaping his lips, so it probably wasn’t good. 

Any other day, Elias would give him shit for it, but right now, he couldn't bring himself to care. If it meant no one was going to try and talk to him, all for the better. Elias couldn’t guarantee what he might say if they did- _especially_ if they asked about Ritter. 

And if Ritter nudged his shields, well. They were thick enough Elias could easily pretend he hadn’t felt anything at all. For all he knew, Ritter hadn’t, and that friendly poke was all the product of an imagination that didn’t know when to give up. 

It was better this way. Elias didn’t know what he’d been thinking, trying to get over a crush while letting that crush inside all but his deepest shields. 

Fuck he was stupid. The jealousy deep in the pit of his stomach had caught fire, and suddenly Elias was just. So. Angry. At himself. He’d been dumb and gotten burned, and it was all his own damn fault. 

No one approached him during warm ups. That was probably for the best. 

Right now, Elias just wanted to play hockey, because hockey was all he had. It was all he’d ever had, and he’d been stupid to forget that. He’d picked his hockey over his Talent, and he needed to remember that. 

That night, Elias played like a demon, laying out checks and crashing the net like he was twice his size. He didn’t get into any fights, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. Johnny kept shooting him wide eyed looks, and Mony just shook his head and backed away whenever Elias got caught up in another scrum. Hanny frowned at him every time he returned to the bench. Ritter, at least, was in goal, so he was far too busy playing to even try to find out what was bothering Elias. Thank fuck. 

Elias ended the night with one goal, one assist, six penalty minutes, and a split lip from a retaliatory high stick that would not stop bleeding. He was exhausted and numb. 

It felt _great_. 

Johnny gave him a terrified stare as Elias grinned at him, teeth coated in blood from sucking on his injured lip. Mony just shook his head- he’d been doing that a lot, though Elias probably deserved it. Hanny was staring at him, a thoughtful frown on his face. He caught Elias’s eye, mouthing, ‘we need to talk’. 

Elias grimaced at him, but Hanny just scowled, repeating himself. Elias shook his head. Hanny’s face just got more stubborn. 

Elias wasn’t getting out of this one. 

After showers and interviews, Hanny slid up to him, grabbing his elbow in an iron grip. 

“C’mon. You’re coming with me. I’ve got beer and we can order take out, and then I think we need to have a talk.” Tugging his elbow in an effort to free himself did nothing. Hanny’s hand didn’t even twitch. Elias glanced around, hoping to catch someone’s eye to rescue him. Gio and Smitty were both rather conspicuously avoiding glancing at Elias’s stall. Nealer just shook his head at him. Everyone else was already filing out, but Ritter had hung behind, fussing with something on his gear. He looked up, and their gazes caught. 

Elias’s heart thudded loudly in his ears as he stared into Ritter’s eyes. The brown that he’d always thought so friendly suddenly looked dark and fathomless, before Ritter blinked, seeming to realize just who he was locking eyes with. He smiled, eyes softening, and stood up. Oh god, he was making as if to come over to Elias, tapping lightly on his shields as he approached. Elias broke eye contact. He had to get out of here, _now_. 

“Yeah, ok, let’s go.” He hissed in an undertone to Hanny, dragging him with as Elias fled the locker room. 

He only stopped once they reached the parking lot. Hanny was eyeing him with genuine concern now. “So...”

Elias groaned under his breath. “You’re not going to let this go, are you.”

“Dude. You just ran away from Ritter. Yeah, I think we need to talk about this.”

Elias sighed and gave up. “Fine. I’ll meet you at your place.” 

“Good.” Hanny eyed him suspiciously. “You better actually show up, I will hunt you down.” He warned. Elias rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, I get it, you won’t let me get out of talking about my _feelings_.” He muttered.

“Ugh, feelings.” Hanny said reflexively, before shaking a finger at Elias. “You aren’t going to get out of this that easily. I don’t like it, but for you, I will talk about... _feelings_.” He wrinkled his nose, but remained firm. 

Elias sighed again. “Let’s just go.” It was cold out, and standing and arguing in the parking lot was not his idea of a fun time. Even talking to Hanny about ‘the bee that’s crawled up his ass’ (Hanny really needed to learn to mutter under his breath more quietly) was preferable to standing in a parking lot where Ritter might find him again. At least he’d stopped prodding Elias’s shields once they’d left the locker room- those little probes of friendly confusion and request had just made Elias feel sick. 

Last week, Ritter wouldn’t have even needed to ask. 

Last week, Elias had been a lovesick moron. 

The drive to Hanny’s was far shorter than Elias would have preferred. It would have been nice to have more time to collect himself, but it was not to be. Hanny was even waiting in the driveway, clearly ready and willing to drag Elias inside if he needed to. 

Friends were just the worst. 

Shutting off the engine, Elias made sure Hanny was watching before he heaved an exasperated sigh and climbed out. Hanny rolled his eyes at him, broadcasting annoyance loud enough to ping even Elias’s shields. Elias was actually kind of impressed. Nulls weren’t usually so good at being so pointed. Trust Hanny to figure it out just to make sure Elias could tell he was annoyed on every possible level. He climbed out of the car. He was just delaying the inevitable, he knew, but that didn’t mean he _wanted_ to face the inquisition waiting for him behind Hanny’s front door. 

Unfortunately for Elias, Hanny had had enough of his stalling. Elias had barely gotten out of his car before Hanny was on him, locking a hand around his wrist- Elias forced back a flinch and forced his shields even thicker as Hanny’s irritation and concern flooded through him. He tugged back, but Hanny just tightened his grip until the bones in Elias’s wrist creaked, and dragged him into Hanny’s apartment. The door closing behind him felt like a death knell. Hanny shoved him into the living room and down onto the couch, turning on Elias with a steely look. He still hadn’t let go of Elias’s wrist.

“Takeout is coming, but it’ll be a half hour. So. Plenty of time for us to talk.”

Yeah, Hanny wasn’t letting go of this. 

Unfortunately for Hanny, away from Ritter, and as such without the pressing need to do literally anything other than have to talk to Ritter, Elias wasn’t feeling much like talking anymore. He crossed his arms, finally forcing Hanny to drop his grip or risk being yanked into Elias. 

“About what?” 

Hanny glared at him. Elias glared back. Hanny was stubborn, but so was he. And he _really_ did not want to talk about this. 

“Dude.” Hanny said flatly. Elias raised an eyebrow. 

“What?” 

There was actually a muscle twitching in Hanny’s jaw. It was kind of fascinating. Elias tilted his head, blinking in a way he’d been told made him look endearingly clueless. The muscle twitched again. 

Elias offered Hanny a small smile. This was actually kind of fun. Maybe he could annoy Hanny into forgetting about what he wanted to talk about? 

Hanny’s eyes flashed. 

Elias drew breath, about to try some inane comment- maybe he could talk about the weather. That would get Hanny’s hackles up- when Hanny gave an inarticulate snarl and just...

Lunged for him. The breath he’d just taken rushed back out, the impact forcing it from his lungs. Startled, Elias fell backwards and slipped right off the couch. Hanny bore him down to the floor, and Elias went sprawling, one leg still stuck high on a cushion that wouldn’t come free, no matter how he tugged. 

Meanwhile, Hanny landed his full body weight directly on Elias’s stomach. 

“Augh!” Elias spluttered, choking as he tried to inhale and was promptly denied by 93 kilos of infuriated defenseman sitting on his diaphragm. “Hanny- can’t- breath.” He forced out. Hanny, looking slightly chagrined, shifted until instead of all of him, only most of him was pressing into Elias’s chest. Elias glared, but any fight had been knocked out of him along with most of his ability to breath. 

“What the _fuck_ , Hanny?” He spat out, uncomfortably aware of how utterly stuck he was. Hanny grinned at him and plopped his- fuck!- fucking bony elbows on Elias’s chest, resting his head in his hands. 

“You, my friend, have something you need to get off your chest. I’m just helping things along.” Elias rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, like a fucking heavy as shit defenseman.” He muttered. Hanny just grinned, no longer irritated now that he had Elias pinned and at his mercy (and suddenly Elias was also very grateful things had only ever been platonic between them, or this would have been even weirder). Hanny’s cheer was fizzing through him where he laid on Elias, underlaid with more of that steely determination. Elias tried to push himself up, hoping to knock Hanny off balance and off of him, but Hanny’s grim just took a sadistic slant and he dropped all of his weight back onto Elias’s stomach. Elias coughed. 

“If you break something, I’m making you explain it to Coach.” He warned. Hanny just waved a hand, concerningly _unconcerned_ by the idea that he might be doing damage to Elias’s rib cage. 

“Stop trying to change the subject man, you know I’m not gonna let you up until you tell me what’s going on.” He settled his face back in his hands, expression going serious. 

“You’ll have to get up when the food comes.” Elias felt compelled to point out. “They’re probably going to be here soon.”

“I lied.” Hanny admitted cheerfully. Elias raised an eyebrow. Hanny had better have gotten food, or Elias was going to kill him. He was already tempted to anyway, because this was a lot of bullshit for one person to deal with. 

“I paid extra for the Thai place close to mine to rush deliver it. It’s all ready to go whenever you’re ready to admit defeat and just tell me what the hell happened with you and Ritter.” Hanny smirked. “No one’s expecting to see either of us at all today, so get talking.”

Elias tensed. They hadn’t named it til now, and he’d been hoping to keep it that way. It was easier to avoid something when you didn’t give it a name. Hanny’s eyes were sharp on his, and Elias bit back a wince, knowing he’d tacitly admitted there was a problem just with that reaction. 

“I really don’t want to talk about it.” He tried. Hanny made a buzzer noise, flecks of spit dotting Elias’s face. His complaint of “Gross!” was summarily ignored. 

“Sorry dude, not happening. Maybe I would have before, because everyone’s entitled to their own personal shit, but uh... That kinda went out the window around the time you tried to take someone’s head off with your stick and then scared the shit out of Johnny with a fucking slasher smile.” He paused. “And had all that happen on top of some of the most hilariously _bad_ practices I have ever seen.” 

Elias squirmed. It sounded... well, it sounded really fucking bad put like that. He’d taken way too many practices to regain his equilibrium without Ritter in his head, and he was honestly lucky he’d managed to get himself sorted out before the game. It helped, that they’d never linked up during a game, too busy to do anything more than stay behind their own shields. It had still fucking sucked. 

“And like, ever since that first day with the really bad practice, you and Ritter have gone from being attached at the goddamn hip to you ignoring him and him giving you the saddest ass puppy dog eyes that I have ever seen. So like. What gives, man?” 

Elias scoffed under his breath. Ritter had not been giving him puppy dog eyes- he’d been way too busy hanging out with Chucky to even bother glancing at Elias. He’d even given up on requesting entrance to Elias’s shields. Hanny grabbed his shoulders and shook them until Elias’s teeth rattled. “Nah man, it’s true! He’s tried to go over to talk to you like, fifty fucking times, and you’ve just ignored it!” 

Bullshit. Elias would have noticed if Ritter had wanted to talk to him. He was still so fucking attuned to Ritter’s every move, even without having him in his head, that it actually made Elias a little sick to his stomach. 

Hanny growled at him, but dropped it, though his eyes made it clear that they would be revisiting this. “Anyway. That still doesn’t explain why you started ignoring him after basically becoming best friends. What the hell, man? That isn’t cool.”

Ok, that was just not fair. “I wasn’t the one who started it.” Elias spat, eyes going wide even as the words left his mouth. Oh hell. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Hanny made a triumphant noise. 

“Ah-ha! Now we’re starting to get somewhere.” He crowed. Elias scowled at him. It had no effect. “So. Wanna tell me why you think Ritter started ignoring you? Cause like, from what I can tell, the guy has been hoping and pleading for you to so much as fucking glance at him for like, a week.”

Elias scoffed again, and Hanny waved it to the side. “Yes, I know, you don’t believe me. But like. C’mon dude. What the fuck started all this?” 

Elias scowled. “I don’t think you’d understand it.” Hanny blinked, head tilting, and against his will, Elias felt his mouth open again. “It’s a Talent thing.” He admitted grudgingly. 

Hanny frowned. “I thought you two suddenly being best friends was a Talent thing. This? This is just weird.”

Fuck, nulls could be so annoying. At this point, Elias was willing to just dump the whole tangled mess of his feelings on Hanny mentally and let _him_ sort it out, but that never led to good things with a psychic null. Headaches were the least of their worries if Elias did that. 

“Fuck you for making me explain this out loud.” Elias grumbled. Hanny raised an encouraging eyebrow. Elias heaved a sigh. 

“So like, Talents, especially telepathic Talents, can like, link together, you know?” He started, the words unfamiliar in his mouth. One upside of hiding his Talent all his life meant that most people didn’t expect him to _talk_ about it. 

“I absolutely do not know, but continue.” Hanny chirped. Elias groaned. 

“Basically, like, we all have mental shields to keep assholes like _you_ from giving us fucking migraines, but if we want, we can change how those shields are set up to give other telepaths more or less access to our minds.” He explained. “For a while, I was shielding really tightly, but then Ritter and I talked and we started linking- giving each other surface access- a lot more. You guys noticed because we were acting in sync and shit a lot.” Hanny nodded, making encouraging noises, before pausing. 

“Hey, is that why you guys could talk to each other in completely different languages and not even blink?” 

Elias nodded. “The mind conveys the meaning, if I listen. The language isn’t as important.” He shrugged. “It’s a lot easier than English.” 

“Huh.” Hanny titled his head. “Anyway! Continue.” He gestured imperiously with one hand, never mind that _he’d_ been the one to interrupt. 

Elias glared at him, but obediently continued. If he wasn’t going to get out of this, well. Hanny had asked. If he got bored with Talent minutiae he wouldn’t ask too many questions about why Elias was so upset about the Chucky thing. “We were linked when we were around each other basically all the time except during games cause we didn’t want the distraction. Plus a lot of refs can sense other Talents and we didn’t want to get accused of cheating. Like, me giving him another perspective to see from so he could track the puck better, shit like that.” Hanny’s eyes were wide. 

“Dude. You can _do_ that?” He breathed. Elias rolled his eyes. 

“It’s a fucking trip, but yeah, we could have borrowed each other’s senses if we’d really wanted. Most people don’t because it’s really disorienting. At best, we could hear stuff the other heard when we weren’t around, but even that was more like, me thinking about something you said and Ritter picking up on my thoughts.” He explained. “Surface level link.” He reminded Hanny. “Senses are a deeper level of the mind.” 

“Dude. I know literally nothing about Talents, you could tell me you could fly to the moon and I’d have to believe you. Make you prove it, sure, but I’d believe you.” Elias neglected to mention that that was basically what the telekinetics of FT&T were doing, thought they were still using space ships to carry people. This was complicated enough without having to run Hanny through every little thing Talents could do. Hanny paused, eyes narrowing. 

“Also, don’t think I haven’t noticed you haven’t explained why you dropped Ritter out of nowhere.” 

Elias grimaced. “I’m getting there.” He said, reluctantly. “The other day, Chucky was looking at me like he kind of wanted to murder me.” 

He ignored Hanny’s muttered aside: “So, regular Chucky, then.”

“I pointed it out to Ritter, since they were friends, and.” Elias shifted under Hanny, his stomach protesting all the unexpected exercise it was getting. “Look, can you please get off me. This is really uncomfortable.” 

Hanny pondered for a second. “Hmmmm, nope! I don’t trust you not to run if I let you up before we’ve hashed out everything and you promise to stop scaring Johnny.”

“It’s not like I was doing it on purpose!” Elias objected. 

“Dude, he’s your liney. You know he’s a delicate flower.” Hanny said, straight faced. 

Elias deadpanned at the ceiling. This idiot was his friend? “What the fuck.” 

“Yeah, that’s what I mean! Who scares Johnny?” Hanny agreed. 

“Puppies have been known to scare Johnny. I’m not special.” Elias argued. 

“But you are supposed to be his friend. Not cool, man. Not cool.” Hanny shook his head, before visibly refocusing. “Anyway. So, you pointed out that Chucky has a bad case of resting bitch face to Ritter, and...” He prompted.

“And he cut the link between us immediately and spent the rest of the week with Chucky.” Elias finally admitted. 

For a long moment, Hanny stared at him. Then, a wide smile began to grow across his face. “You mean to tell me you were _jealous_?”

“No!” Elias protested. It sounded weak even to his own ears. “I wasn’t jealous.” He added.

Hanny shook his head. “You were totally jealous that Ritter has other friends. Didn’t anyone ever teach you to share?” 

“It’s not that.” Elias said feebly. “It’s just. It kind of hurt, the way he cut the link? It totally disrupted my equilibrium.” 

Hanny’s eyes lit up. “That fucking awful practice!” 

Elias made a face. It had truly been terrible. “Yeah... That really sucked.” He admitted.

“But you could play without being linked to him?” Hanny’s head tilted, inquisitive. 

“We don’t usually link up on game days.” Elias explained. “No link to cut. And when we do link at practices, we don’t cut it, we just let distance do the work of letting it fade naturally. It’s a lot gentler.” 

“But cutting it?” Hanny prompted. 

“It leaves... imprints.” Elias groped for the right word. “My brain didn’t have a chance to adjust to not being linked to Ritter, so it kept having like, phantom limb syndrome for him. It fucking sucked.” Which was putting it mildly. 

“Phantom limb syndrome?” Hanny laughed. “Dude, that’s like. Some romantic type shit.”

Elias couldn’t stop the flush that raced across his cheeks. He ducked his head, avoiding eye contact as best he could. Hanny froze. 

“Oh man. Really?” 

“Get off me.” Elias hissed, renewing his attempts to knock Hanny off of him. He needed to get out of here, now. Hanny responded by dropping all of his weight onto his elbows, still conveniently placed on Elias’s chest. _Fuck_ , that hurt. Elias glared up at him, well aware that his face probably resembled a tomato by this point. 

“Fuck _off_.” Hanny ignored him. 

“Well, this definitely explains the jealousy.” He mused, not acknowledging Elias’s reflexive protest. “Though why you’re jealous of _Chucky_ of all people is kind of confusing, not going to lie.”

Elias gave him a flat stare and pointedly sealed his mouth. He’d already said way more than he wanted to, and outing a teammate was a step too far. 

“I mean, Chucky doesn’t even like guys, so there’s nothing happening there.” Hanny paused. “Wouldn’t you be able to tell, anyway? I mean, you’re a fucking telepath, dude.” 

Elias made a face. Hanny raised an eyebrow. Elias sighed. Great. More talking. 

“I generally try to avoid finding out more about my teammates’ sex lives than I have to.” He said dryly. “You’re all nasty fuckers that broadcast some weird shit, but I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning things out. It’s just easier.” 

“Even when you’re actually invested in the answer? I know you’re not like, a really strong telepath, but I remember a couple times in the ‘Canes locker room where you definitely found out _something_. Couldn’t you just... go looking?” 

Elias recoiled as much as he was physically able. “Hell no!” He snarled. “I’m not invading Chucky’s mind like that, not for anything. That’s _disgusting_.” 

Hanny blinked. “Whoa, not like that!” He yelped. “I got the ethics lecture same as everyone who plays with a Talent, I know you wouldn’t dig. I’m not saying that, but like, you can’t help picking up surface thoughts sometimes, right? So wouldn’t Chucky or Ritter be thinking about it pretty loudly?” 

Elias knew his face was doing something that probably looked sad and pitiful, because Hanny’s eyes softened. “Lindy?” He prompted. Elias shrugged.

“Chucky hasn’t thought about it loud enough to reach me, and I’m not gonna pry.” He deflected.

“And Ritter?” Hanny prodded.

“Ritter blocked me out that whole day.” Elias admitted quietly. “I’ve never seen his shields so high.” He ducked his head away from Hanny’s gaze. “I didn’t want to get pushed away, so I haven’t tried to see if he’ll let me in.”

He wasn’t looking- mentally or physically- but he didn’t have to watch to know that Hanny was giving _him_ a look that was an even blend of fondness and exasperation. 

“Lindy.” He said gently. “Lindy, you have to _talk_ to people to clear this kind of thing up, not just ignore them!” His voice got steadily louder, until he was shouting in Elias’s face by the end. Elias made a face. More spit. 

“That sounds fake.” He grumbled, despite knowing it definitely wasn’t. Hanny snorted. 

“Ok, but seriously, you’ve been tying yourself _and_ poor Ritter up in knots over this, which I’m 99% sure is a misunderstanding, when you could have just told him that cutting the link hurt!” Hanny scolded. 

Elias winced. Put that way... 

“He looked really happy with Chucky.” Elias nearly whispered. He had to force the words out. “I didn’t... I didn’t wanna feel that.” 

Now Hanny just looked sad. “Jeez, Lindy.” He sighed. “What a fucking mess.”

Elias agreed. Also, now that they had talked about literally everything, including some stuff he really would have rather not said, ever... “ _Now_ will you get off of me?” 

Hanny laughed, but mercifully, _finally_ rolled off of Elias’s stomach. Elias immediately disentangled his leg from the couch cushion and flopped fully onto the ground, making exaggerated panting noises. “Thank fuck, I thought your fat ass was going to suffocate me.” He groaned, quietly catching his breath for real. 

“Like I was going to explain _that_ to Coach.” Hanny climbed to his feet. “Anyway, the Thai is probably cold now, but I’ll reheat it. I got you chicken curry.” He added. “And after that whole mess, I’m glad I bought beer and ice cream too.” He nudged Elias’s foot. 

“C’mon. We can watch CSI and you can tell me all about how dreamy Ritter is.” He teased. “I won’t even bug you about talking to him anymore tonight.” 

Elias had definitely noticed the time limit on that promise, but he’d just played one of the hardest games of his career and then gotten tackled to the floor and made to talk about his feelings. He was _starving_. As such, food took precedence over debating why he was definitely not going to talk to Ritter. Pushing himself upright, he rolled his eyes.

“For the last time, ice cream and beer do not go together.” He said, slowly getting to his feet. Everything hurt. He’d played an intensely physical game, and then Hanny had played pinball with his internal organs. 

Hanny just snorted. “That’s because you’re a dumb fucker with no palate.” Elias gave him a flat look. 

“ _I’m_ not the one combining beer with ice cream and insisting they taste good.” He shook his head before Hanny could reply and they could really get going. “Anyway, food?” His stomach gave an embarrassingly loud gurgle, now that Hanny was no longer crushing it into silence. Hanny laughed, but thankfully just led the way to the kitchen and the giant stack of takeout boxes. He’d clearly thought this part through, at least. He nudged three of the boxes Elias’s way. 

“I got you spring rolls.” He grinned, and Elias found himself smiling back. 

Maybe friends were ok after all. 

Even if they did make him talk about his feelings.

* * *

Elias did not talk to Ritter at practice the next day. Or the day after. Or the day after that. Hanny kept giving him looks, demanding to know why Elias was still avoiding their goalie, and Elias kept dodging them. Because he didn’t have an answer, not really. Except...

He hadn’t meant to. He’d thought about it a lot, and even if he still didn’t believe Hanny about Ritter giving him sad eyes, he could acknowledge that maybe he’d been a bit... abrupt. He could have at least told Ritter why he didn’t feel great about linking with him all the time now. (The mess that was the day with the cut link still haunted him, and that was reason enough. No reason to bring in the fact that he really didn’t want to have to have Ritter’s happiness with someone else floating around in his head.)

So yeah. Elias had totally meant to clear the air between them, explain why he wasn’t letting Ritter in anymore, and gone on to let Ritter be happy and in love somewhere far away from him. Then he’d walked into the locker room, and seen Ritter laughing. 

His head had been tilted back, his eyes crinkled up, and he’d been giving the deepest belly laugh at something Chucky- who for once was smiling, not smirking- had said. And Elias had just... Froze. Ritter sounded so happy, and he just.

He couldn’t do it. Fuck, he was not emotionally prepared to go over to a laughing, joyful Ritter and ask to talk about the shitshow that had been Elias’s brain for the past week. He just... couldn’t do it. 

Mechanically, Elias had walked over to his stall and sat down, staring into nothing. His heart hurt. Ritter’s smile... had been so bright. 

He didn’t talk to Ritter at all that day. (And true to his words to Hanny, he didn’t notice the sad looks Ritter kept darting his way, or the hopeful little brushes against his shields, or the way Ritter’s shoulders drooped every time they went ignored.)

Elias might have given Ritter a key once, but now he’d moved houses and changed the locks, and he’d never once told Ritter why. 

The next day, Elias tried again. Or, well. He meant to try. But then he actually _saw_ Ritter, poking Chucky’s cheek while teasing him over something, and it was like someone had stolen Elias’s brain and replaced it with mush. That attempt ended with Elias ducking eye contact and making a run for his stall, feeling completely useless. 

Same thing the next day, only somehow worse, because Ritter gave him this fucking friendly smile and Elias tripped over his own goddamn feet, forcing him to flee the room before he made a complete idiot of himself. Which- he’d thought he was over that! Not the crush, oh no, that was still going strong, but he thought he’d at least managed to figure out coordination when Ritter was looking at him. But he just... wasn’t used to Ritter smiling at him anymore. It had been so long since that sunshine grin had been directed at him, after all. (Elias ignored the part of his brain that noted that it had been a little over a fucking week, not goddamn years. He wasn’t a pining heroine in a romance novel, for God’s sake. It just... It had been a long ten days.)

Days turned into another week, and the team was starting to notice. It hadn’t been as obvious as when they’d linked up, but they’d still gone from being attached at the hip to Elias avoiding Ritter wherever possible, and that did get noticeable after awhile. Johnny was still flinching whenever Elias so much as looked at him strangely, (he’d apologized! He had! But Johnny seemed to have decided Elias was a serial killer now, and there were some things that were hard to come back from) but even he was giving Elias worried glances now, as it became increasingly obvious that the two Talents had fallen out. 

Ritter himself didn’t seem to have noticed much. His shields were still high, and he was still spending all his time wrapped up in Chucky. 

(Elias had never claimed to be the most observant guy. Just as well. Hanny was ready to murder him, but whatever. Elias knew what he saw- and what was more, what he didn’t want to see.) 

Hanny’s looks were starting to become more determined, and Elias knew he was one more avoided talk from Hanny doing something drastic. 

Before Hanny could make good on the threats his eyes promised (Elias was having visions of suspiciously locked closets), they were headed out on a road trip.

* * *

Elias generally liked road trips. Sure, nothing beat playing to the roar of a sold out home crowd, but traveling around the country was pretty fun too. He got to see new places, try new restaurants, and, hopefully, beat another team on their ice. That was _always_ a good feeling.

So yeah, Elias liked road trips. 

Most of the time.

Now, he was just cursing that basically the only thing to do after a win on the road was to go out with the team. Which, normally he liked that too. Normally, he wasn’t trying to avoid talking to his fucking goalie. Who had no right to be sitting right across from him, head tipped back to bare the long line of his throat as he laughed at something Nealer had said. 

Elias looked away and took another shot. It burned, and he let the sensation distract him from the churning of his stomach that had absolutely nothing to do with hard liquor on an empty stomach. 

(As a rule, Elias didn’t drink much. Alcohol tended to mess with his ability to keep up his shields, as well as make him forget that reading the minds of everyone in the room was not supposed to be within his capabilities. It tended to be a bad combination. If he really needed that buzzed feeling, he could just sit next to someone while they got hammered and let their mind spill over onto his a little. The nice feeling, with none of the side effects. Tonight though... Tonight, he was going to need way more than a second hand buzz.)

Elias was drunk. He hadn’t meant to be. He’d only meant to get good and buzzed, enough to soften all the very complicated feelings that clawed at his chest every time he saw Ritter’s flushed cheeks. 

But. Well. Ritter kept looking unfairly good and completely unavailable, and Elias kept drinking. 

Not his finest moment. Not that admitting this actually changed anything about Elias’s current predicament. He was fairly certain the hall was trying to rotate like that one scene in Inception, and he couldn’t find his room. The numbers kept swimming in front of his eyes. “You’re not fish.” He tried to scold them. They kept swimming anyway. Rude.

Elias was very, _very_ drunk. That was the only explanation he would have later for what happened next, when finally forced to explain so very many things. 

Because instead of using any of the sensible options available to him, like using the phone he definitely still had to call someone to help, or pounding on doors until one of his teammates answered and make them help him find his room, or just sitting and waiting until his vision cleared enough to read the numbers on his room key, Elias did possibly one of the dumbest things he’d done to date. 

Sliding down to sit against the wall- his swaying had gone from “drunk but functional” to “could sway right off of his feet any moment”- Elias closed his eyes, and dropped his shields. 

All of them. 

Instantly, his senses expanded, mind spiraling up and outwards until it blanketed the whole city. Thousands of minds lit up his mind like constellations, pressing against his like old friends. Most of the city was asleep, quiet and contented and warming him right down to his bones. 

It was beautiful. Elias luxuriated in the sensations for a long moment, time falling away as he just enjoyed living the way he was built to. 

It was wonderful.

Alas, he’d dropped his shields for a reason, as his pressing need to be asleep, in a bed, finally reminded him, breaking through the drunken, sleepy haze that had blanketed him. 

With a mumbled groan, Elias set about reeling in and narrowing his focus to the hotel, searching for one of his teammates that might still be awake and sober enough to either find his room or let him crash with them. 

Johnny was asleep, dreaming of... running away from mayonnaise? Elias was drunk enough to laugh, wishing he could chirp him for this. He watched for a moment, amused, before finally moving along. Mony was possibly more smashed than Elias, going off of the fragments Elias was able to decipher- yep, he was heading for the toilet and planning to be there for quite some time, no help there. 

Hanny was... not here? Elias blinked at the empty space he’d thought his friend’s mind was, before remembering that their flight wasn’t til pretty late tomorrow. Some of the single guys had decided to take advantage of that, finding someone to take them home for the night. He could probably find Hanny if he wanted, but that wouldn’t actually help him, so he kept going. 

Gio was calling his wife. Elias wasn’t that much of an ass. 

The next mind Elias bumped into felt... familiar, but not quite right? And it was right by a completely unfamiliar mind too, which was just weird. He could have sworn that this floor was team only. Elias blinked again, squinting his eyes as if that would help him clarify his mental perception. He pushed closer, trying to identify the strange mind, his probe becoming less tentative as his drunken mind latched onto the mystery. He poked at the new mind. 

It was like pushing through the surface of a lake- resistance, and then, suddenly Elias was practically _yanked_ in. Sensation flooded through him, his breath catching in his throat. _Oh_. That explained why the mind was unfamiliar- one of his teammates had brought their hookup back to the hotel instead. 

Elias shuddered against the wall, his skin suddenly too tight, too hot. His head tilted back, a moan caught between his teeth as everything the mind he’d accidentally ended up in was feeling flooded through to him. And he was feeling a _lot_. Elias flailed, overwhelmed and unable to extricate himself, as the man arched his back, fucking back into the cock driving into him, pleasure blooming through him. 

Oh god, that felt so fucking _good_. Elias gasped, eyes slipping shut as he shook against the wall. Behind his eyelids, the man opened his, and- oh, _fuck_. His eyes flew open in shock, the bland hallway he sat in doing absolutely nothing to erase the images burned into his brain. 

Elias didn’t feel drunk anymore. 

He didn’t feel like anything, anymore. 

Because the teammate that had picked up- was _Ritter_. 

Elias had never let himself think about what Ritter might look like, having sex. It had hurt too much, imagining something he’d never have. 

Now though, now he _knew_. Elias swallowed hard, staring into nothing as behind his eyes, Ritter’s face, eyes hot with pleasure, mouth swollen and red, fucked his hookup into the mattress, and through him, _Elias_. He could feel _everything_. 

Elias’s blood had turned to lava. Thick and scalding, his heart hammered with the effort to push it through his veins. Ritter’s shields were half down, though he wasn’t yet projecting (thank god, Elias might be overwhelmed now but there was no way he could survive _that_ ), mind consumed and bent out of its regular shape by the pleasure. Elias realized that that was why he hadn’t identified Ritter instantly- shields shaped how a mind was perceived, and he’d never felt Ritter like this before. Also, Elias was very, very drunk. That helped. 

Not that he could think about that now. God, his dick was so hard it _hurt_. It was only the barest thread of propriety that kept him from doing something about it right there. It was tempting, though, and he shifted his weight, _aching_ with the need to do something to relieve the pressure. 

He needed to get to his room, _now_ , and there was no way he was going to be able to move when every limb was currently trembling with transmitted pleasure. Clumsily, Elias began to detangle himself from the guy’s mind, fighting off the threads that tried to pull him deeper. It was difficult. Elias was still drunk, and the guy was a null, which meant his mind was twice as difficult to navigate even when Elias _wasn’t_ half out of his mind with arousal. Now, well, he might as well have been trapped in a labyrinth, without a handy ball of string to tell him which way was up. He needed an anchor, but none was forthcoming.

In his drowning struggles, his mind flailed out, grasping for something outside of the mind he was trapped in to grab onto, and bumped right. Into. Ritter.

Shit.

Elias renewed his struggles to stuff his mind back into his own skull, panic giving him clarity, as Ritter froze. It drew a groan of complaint from his bed partner, which he ignored. (Which seemed pretty rude, actually, but Elias wasn’t exactly the epitome of sexual manners right now, so he couldn’t really comment.) _:Lindy?:_ He broadcast. 

Fuck. 

_:Lindy, what are you doing?:_ He didn’t sound mad, just confused; despite the fact that he _had_ to know Elias had just gotten a front row seat to a show Ritter definitely hadn’t planned on sharing. 

_Fuck_. 

Elias finally yanked free, gasping in relief as his skin cooled slightly, no longer having to contend with anyone’s arousal but his own. _:Sorry.:_ He ‘pathed back hurriedly, before slamming his shields up, as thick as he could make them in his state, and stood. His legs were shaky but somehow supported him, and his vision was finally clear enough to find his room on his own. 

He hurried down the hall, finally finding his room, near the end of the hall by the elevator. Slamming the door behind him, Elias collapsed on the bed, shoving at his pants until he finally managed enough coordination to peel them and his boxers off. He hissed as the cool air hit his fevered skin, making his dick twitch. Elias palmed it, shuddering, before grabbing the shaft hard. His breath gasped out as he mindlessly fucked into his hand, mind caught up in the way Ritter’s cock had felt, imagining if it had been _him_. He was too wound up to care that his hand was rough and dry, callouses dragging against the skin. It didn’t take long, a handful of strokes, before he was cursing and arching off the bed, coming in his fist. 

Panting, Elias collapsed to the bed, body buzzing with the lingering alcohol and the force of his orgasm. Sleepily, he wiped off with a corner of the sheet, and was about to pass out, when his drink dumb mind finally made a connection that he should have realized far, far earlier. 

He hadn’t known the guy Ritter was hooking up with. Hadn’t recognized him at _all_. Which meant... He hadn’t been Chucky. 

Elias was wide awake now, mouth full of ashes and all good feelings gone. 

Ritter had _cheated on Chucky_. And Elias had _watched_. 

Elias barely made it to the toilet before he threw up.

* * *

The next day at breakfast, Elias avoided eye contact with everyone. It wasn’t hard. His hangover was _killing_ him, every single light was out to fuck with him personally, he had barely slept the night before thanks to certain revelations, and he was having enough difficulty forcing down his eggs and muffin that no one wanted to be next to him in case he puked it back up. 

Elias was honestly grateful for this (though he could have done without the pickaxe to the head). He was kind of afraid that if anyone so much as looked at him too long, he’d blurt out the whole damn mess from last night, and what a shitshow _that_ would be. Ritter and Chucky weren’t out to the team, and Elias had no intention of forcing their hands. That was a plain bastard thing to do, and no one deserved that. Not even cheaters. His stomach turned over at that, because fuck, he still couldn’t reconcile that with the Ritter he’d thought he knew. He must have gone even paler, because Hanny, who had been making a beeline for him, abruptly stopped and made an about face, ending up on the other side of the breakfast bar from him. Elias snorted under his breath, grimacing as the sound echoed through his skull. He must really look bad if even Hanny wasn’t willing to bug him now. 

The bus was hell. The painkillers hadn’t kicked in yet, and the Gatorade could only do so much. Mostly, Elias just suffered, head down and hands clasped tightly as he carefully kept himself under control until he could escape. 

Ritter tried to catch his eye as they disembarked at the airport, but Elias avoided his with even more vigor than the others. He needed to talk to Ritter. He knew that. What he’d done last night, even if it was overshadowed by Ritter’s own fuck up, was still far beyond the pale. He might not have meant to spy on Ritter, but he had. And he did need to apologize for that, properly. He would, too, and confront Ritter about what he’d seen. Just. 

Not right now. 

Right now, Elias needed to focus on not throwing up, and maybe also on not crying. 

Last night had been awful for a lot of reasons. 

Thankfully, the painkillers kicked in before the plane ride, so he didn’t have to suffer through being trapped several thousand feet in the air with several people he desperately wanted to avoid while also dealing with a hangover determined to undermine his shields at every opportunity. Elias even managed to grab a short nap, though he didn’t actually feel much better upon landing. 

Ritter was trying to catch his eye again, which Elias carefully ignored. Thankfully, Ritter kept it purely physical and didn’t upset the delicate equilibrium Elias’s brain had reached (thanks to judicious application of electrolytes and even more painkillers) by prodding at it with _his_ mind. Elias wasn’t sure why he wasn’t trying, and honestly, didn’t really care. He just appreciated the results. 

He made it home, _somehow_ , probably looking more like a zombie than a hockey player, and collapsed into bed. Sleeping for roughly forever was sounding _really_ good right now. 

Elias didn’t actually sleep for forever, but almost twelve hours made for a decent substitute. He could have done without the alarm reminding him that there was practice in an hour, though. His headache was gone, but Elias did not appreciate being reminded that he couldn’t just take a few days off to work through his internal angst before facing the cause of so, so much of it. 

Damn Ritter, honestly. Elias had been through more emotional rollercoaster since the trade to Calgary than he had the rest of his _career_ , and a distressingly large percentage of that could be laid right at Ritter’s feet. 

Why did he like the man again? 

Well. Up until last night, he’d thought Ritter a sweet and genuinely kind soul with a wicked sense of humor. Now? Now, Elias had gotten past the denial and the sadness and was settling pretty solidly into fury. 

Which was probably not the best frame of mind to be in going into a conversation with the guy- because it was going to take a miracle for Elias to avoid Ritter for much longer when he still had to play on a team with the guy- but it was better than just wanting to cry all the time. Besides, Ritter kind of deserved it.

* * *

Practice was nothing special, if you didn’t count the sudden frostiness Elias was exhibiting for their main goalie. He did his best to hide it- people asking questions was the last thing he wanted here. But it was hard. The churning in his stomach every time he so much as glimpsed Ritter was making it really, really hard to pretend everything was normal. And people were picking up on it. On the ice, not so much- Elias was still a hockey player and he was damn good at it too, keeping off ice shit from affecting his game was one of the first things he picked up once he’d decided to put hockey above Talent. 

After practice? Not so much. The locker room was unaccountably cool for a practice the day after a win, which Elias knew was his fault, but couldn’t bring himself to care over much. It got the rest of the team to clear out in record time, at least, clearly uncomfortable with the atmosphere. (Elias might actually have been broadcasting his desire for everyone to get out and leave them the hell alone, he wasn’t sure. His shields were thick as always, but strong emotions sometimes leaked anyway. Whatever. They’d be fine once they were away from him for a bit.) 

Finally, he and Ritter were the only ones left. Chucky has lingered, murmuring a question to Ritter, who’d shook his head and sent him off with a smile. Elias’s blood had _boiled_ at that, at how Ritter could be so calm when sending away his boyfriend so he could talk to the guy that had caught him cheating. Was it fair for Elias to be this furious? Probably not- it wasn’t like he was involved in their relationship in any way- but he was anyway. 

Talents weren’t supposed to be liars- and _yes_ Elias was fucking very well aware of the hypocrisy there, thank you, but at least his lies didn’t _hurt_ anyone. They were supposed to be better, be _good_ , and Elias resented the reminder that they- that _Ritter_ \- were just people like everyone else. 

The locker room was empty now. Elias met Ritter’s eyes and said as evenly as he was able, “I think we need to talk.” 

Ritter nodded. “I- yeah. Lindy, about what you saw...”

Elias cut him off. “First off,” He said coolly, “Please allow me to offer my deepest apologies for invading your privacy in such a manner.” He really did mean the apology, too. “It was reprehensible of me to probe in such a way, and then to linger as long as I did.” He paused. “It’s not an excuse, but I was very drunk and found it difficult to extract myself from his mind. I didn’t intend to spy on you, but I understand if you are upset with me for that.” 

Ritter blinked. “Lindy, what? I don’t care, it was an accident, it’s fine.”

“Thank you.” Elias interrupted again. He knew he was being exceedingly rude, but he had to say his piece before he lost the edge of his temper, and with it, his nerve. “Normally, I would never say anything of what I saw, as it was an invasion of your privacy. However, I don’t think I can just forget what I saw, and I definitely can’t keep this secret for you.” Just the idea of letting Ritter carry on with Chucky like normal when Elias knew the truth was sickening. 

Ritter paled so quickly that for a moment, Elias thought he was going to pass out. “Oh god.” Ritter breathed. “Lindy, please, no.” 

“It’s not right.” Elias ignored the plea. 

Ritter staggered back, sitting down hard. “Please.” He whispered again. 

Elias glared. “How can you ask me to keep something so disgusting a secret?” He demanded. “If you don’t tell, I _will_.” Chucky deserved that much, at least. 

Ritter was nearly white. He looked like a ghost. “I didn’t think you of all people would have a problem with it.” He said quietly. “Please don’t tell. I’ll do anything.” He looked heartbroken. What the _fuck_. Elias threw up his hands. 

“In what universe would I ever be ok with that!” He nearly shouted. “I hate cheaters! Of course I’m going to have a problem with you fucking cheating on my fucking teammate!” 

Ritter stared. “Cheating?” He asked. He sounded confused. 

Elias scowled. “Yes, _cheating_. You know, when you sleep with someone other than the person you’re dating.” His voice was practically dripping with disdain, but he couldn’t help it. Acting innocent was not going to help Ritter here. He knew what he’d seen. “Like what you did at that hotel.” 

Ritter looked like someone had smacked him in the face with a fish. “What?” 

Elias crossed his arms. “I wanted to talk to you because I wanted to warn you that if you don’t tell him, I will. I can’t keep that kind of secret.”

“Him?” Ritter was really doing a good job acting bewildered. 

“Yes, him. Chucky, you know, the guy you’re dating? The guy that you definitely aren’t sleeping with that night?” Elias spat out. He might not be close to Chucky, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about him, or want to see him hurt, and he said as much. 

Ritter blinked slowly, before bursting out laughing. _What the fuck_? “You think I’m cheating on Chucky? Sorry, you think I’m _dating_ Chucky?” He choked out. 

Elias stared. “Yes?” 

He got the feeling he had missed something. 

Ritter didn’t stop laughing. “Chucky is straight, Lindy. Like, really, really straight.” 

Elias blinked. “But you guys were always...” He made a gesture, trying to encompass their whole... _Ritter-and-Chucky-ness_. 

“Because we’re _friends_.” Elias quirked an eyebrow at that. He had never been like _that_ with any of his friends and he said as much. 

Ritter turned red. “I... might have had a crush on him at one point.” He admitted. “But he let me down gently and now we’re just good friends.” That hung all over each other and had ridiculous cellies after games, apparently. “I like someone else, actually. He likes to give me shit about it.” 

Oh. _Ouch_. 

Ritter paused. “You really thought we were dating?” Elias pushed away any thoughts about who Ritter might like before he did something really dumb, like ask, and focused on the conversation. 

“It really looked like you were and just didn’t want to be out yet.” Elias admitted. He _didn’t_ admit that he might also have been seeing what he wished he could have. 

“So you don’t have a problem with the gay thing?” 

“What? No!” Elias yelped. “Is that what you thought? That I was threatening to out you?” 

“Well... you saw me having sex with a guy and then got really mad and yelled at me about it being disgusting, so...” Ritter shrugged. 

“Oh.” Elias winced. He hadn’t thought it might come off that way. He hadn’t really thought much at all, too wrapped up in his upset at the idea that if he’d been braver, it might have been _him_ Ritter had cheated on. “No, I don’t have a problem with gay people.” He paused for a moment. He... probably owed Ritter this much, at least. “I’m... bisexual, actually. So. No, no problems here.” His eyes darted away from Ritter’s for a second, before he forced them back. 

Ritter blinked, before beaming. “Thank you for telling me.” He said softly. Elias nodded shortly. 

“Anyway.” He shrugged, and grabbed his bag. “That was why I wanted to talk to you.” He needed to be somewhere else, _now_ , because Ritter’s smile was still really fucking unfair. “I’ll see you around.” 

“Wait!” Ritter reached out to grab his wrist. 

Elias flinched. He didn’t mean to. He’d just... gotten back into the habit of avoiding touch again, especially with Ritter. Ritter froze, before letting his hand fall. They were silent for a long moment. 

“Why did you block me out?” Ritter finally asked quietly. “It can’t have been the sex, that only happened yesterday. You’ve been blocking me out for weeks.” 

Elias made a determined effort to smile. “I thought you and Chucky had started dating. There are some things that no one needs to see.” He teased. 

Ritter laughed at that. “I. Ok, yeah, I can see why you would want to avoid that.” He admitted. “But we aren’t, and...” He ducked his head, looking bashful. “I really missed you, these past weeks.” Ritter said quietly. 

The words were like a gut punch. That just... that was just _not fair_. How in hell was Elias supposed to resist _that_?

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” He forced out, somehow, ignoring the way his heart was screaming at him to just give Ritter what he wanted, _anything_ he wanted. 

“Why not?” Ritter asked, looking so fucking hurt, and Elias... Elias was just so fucking done with this goddamn stupid crush. 

“It really hurt, the way you cut the link a while ago, when I pointed out Chucky was looking sad.” He finally said. “That was what made me think for sure you were together.” He added. 

“Oh...” Ritter winced. “Sorry about that, I didn’t think.” 

Elias shook his head. “No, you didn’t.” He said quietly. “That fucked me up for _days_.”

“Sorry.” Ritter repeated, before blinking. “That’s why you were so off all day?” He asked. Elias nodded. Ritter frowned. “I have... literally never had that happen, even with really fast link cuts.”

“Really?” Elias stared.

Ritter shook his head. “Never.” He paused. 

Well, shit. That put money on this being some sort of Prime bullshit, which Elias did _not need_. “It happened with me, though.” Elias said finally. “So maybe I’m just really sensitive or something, but I don’t really want to risk that happening again.” Which was the truth, just... not the whole truth. Which was that Elias could not afford letting Ritter back into his head, not if he ever wanted to get over him. 

(He ignored the tiny voice observing that if Ritter was gay, that meant he actually had a chance. He really, really didn’t. Ritter had had the perfect set up to tell Elias if he liked _him_ , and hadn’t taken it. There was nothing there, and even if there was, Elias couldn’t _do_ anything about it. He’d never be able to date Ritter without letting _something_ slip, and then he’d be well and truly fucked.)

Ritter’s shoulders slumped. “That makes sense.” He murmured, looking so, so fucking sad. Elias closed his eyes for a moment when Ritter was looking down. He was going to be really fucking stupid again, he could tell. Why did he have to be such a dumbass? 

(Because you like him and you want him to be happy. You might even love him. The tiny voice singsonged. The tiny voice in his head could _fuck off_ , thanks.)

He grabbed Ritter’s wrist, the only way to get through the many layers of shields they had both built. _:Just don’t do it again, ok? Warn me first.:_

Ritter’s eyes went wide. _:Yes! Absolutely, I won’t do that again.:_ He promised. _:I never want to hurt you like that, Lindy.:_

Elias’s traitorous heart thudded _hard_ at that. He dropped Ritter’s wrist before he could read too deeply into why Elias was doing this, after turning him down not thirty seconds ago. Elias really needed to get over this. “Give me a little time to rearrange my shields.” He said aloud. “Maybe I can keep it from happening again.” 

Ritter nodded eagerly. “Yeah, of course!” He smiled so widely his face had to be hurting. Elias couldn’t look at it straight on, for fear of being blinded. They sat in silence for a long moment, staring at each other. 

“I should get going.” Elias finally said. 

“Me too.” Ritter looked rueful for a second. “I blew off Chucky to talk to you, so I’m gonna be hearing about _that_ for a while.” 

Elias snorted. “And you wonder why I thought you two were dating.” He muttered. 

Ritter shrugged, sheepish, but didn’t offer a rebuttal. Elias sighed, and patted Ritter’s shoulder for a second. 

“See you tomorrow.”

Ritter smiled. “See you.” 

Elias left before he could do anything else even more moronic, like ask if the guy Ritter liked was him. He collapsed onto his bed with a long groan, before turning over and grabbing his phone. He texted Hanny. 

_you were right. ritters not dating chucky._

The string of smugly laughing emojis Hanny responded with were _entirely_ unnecessary. As was the _fukcing told you so!!!_ that came a moment later. 

Elias sent the rolling eyes emoji back. 

_so u gonna tell him u like him?_ Shit, he had not thought this through. Of _course_ now that he and Ritter were talking again Hanny was going to pester him about this. 

_no, he said he likes someone_

_um, yeah, he likes YOU_

_then why wouldnt he say so? i even told him i was bi and he didnt say anything._

_um, cause you got mad and ignored him for like 2 weeks? hes probly scared_

Elias scoffed at that. 

_no way_

_yes?!!!_ Hanny texted back. 

Elias sent another eye rolling emoji. 

_whatever dude u kno im right ritters def into u he just wants to make sure u dont hate him_

_thought i was the telepath here_ Elias texted back. 

Now it was Hanny’s turn for the eye rolling emoji. _i dont need 2 read minds to kno that ritters super into u its all over his face. he was moping the whole time u were mad at him_

_he was not, he was hanging out with chucky the whole time_

_because u were ignoring him dude. also weve been over this jealousy is not a good look on you_

Elias snorted. _im not jealous. also fuck you I make everything look good_

The string of crying laughing emojis was completely uncalled for.

* * *

The next day at practice, Elias had to take a deep breath before walking into the locker room. His heart was hammering in his ears, loud enough that he was surprised no one else could hear it. He almost didn’t do it. Almost couldn’t bear to have Ritter back in his head when he knew that he’d never have it for real. 

But then he saw Ritter’s face- the hope underlined with resignation, as if remembering all the other times he’d been rebuffed- and Elias folded like a house of cards. 

The look on Ritter’s face when Elias’s shields folded around him like he’d always belonged there (Elias couldn’t afford to think about how much he wanted that to be true) was _so_ much better. 

_:I’ve missed this. Missed you, Lindy.:_

Elias flushed at the warmth underlying Ritter’s mental voice. 

_:Missed you too.:_ He ‘pathed, once he was sure his mind was under control. 

Ritter did something in his mind that felt a lot like a cat stretching in the sun. _:Feels so good.:_ He sighed, and _Jesus_ , what had gotten into Ritter? If he kept sounding like that, Elias was going to start getting ideas that he _really_ couldn’t afford to. 

_:Yeah.:_ Elias finally ‘pathed, forcing himself to keep steady. _:It’s nice.:_

Ritter didn’t say anything, just hummed in lazy satisfaction as he folded himself into every corner of Elias’s mind that Elias would let him, pressing up against the borders of Elias’s public shields in a very catlike manner. Elias stifled a laugh. Goalies. It was... nice, kind of like having a blanket draped around his shoulders. Ritter caught his eye from across the room, and they shared a smile, before going back to getting ready for practice. 

Hanny plopped down next to Elias, making him jump. “You’re like, glowing, dude. What the fuck.” He nudged Elias, smiling, to show he didn’t mean it badly. 

Elias frowned at him. “I’m not.” He argued. Tucked into the corner of his mind, Ritter laughed at him. 

_:You kind of are. It’s actually kind of blinding.:_ He teased, and Elias turned his frown on him. Ritter just snorted at him. Hanny followed Elias’s gaze, and grinned. 

“Oh, I _see_.” He murmured, smirking. “Is it too soon to say I told you so?”

Elias glared at him, punching his shoulder hard in lieu of saying something that Ritter might overhear. 

“Ah. Still got a few things to work out then.” Hanny nodded as if Elias had something intelligible. 

“Are you _sure_ you aren’t a secret Talent?” Elias wondered. If they could mess up with him...

Hanny laughed. “Nope! One hundred percent pure skill here, dude!” Elias rolled his eyes, making sure they caught Ritter’s as he tried to convey exactly how exasperating he found Hanny currently. 

Ritter smiled. _:He’s like your Chucky.:_ He observed. 

Elias wrinkled his nose. _:Except I really hope no one’s ever thought we were dating. That just... no.:_

Secretly, he hoped that joking about that was ok. It might have been a little too soon. 

Ritter’s silent laugh quickly assured him that it was not. _:Not your type?:_

_:Not even a little. I’ve seen him do way too many gross things to **ever** want that.:_

Ritter’s response was a wordless sense of curiosity, which Elias always figured was what a string of question marks might sound like if they could be pronounced out loud. 

_:Never let Hanny enter an eating contest.:_ Was all he ‘pathed. _:After what I’ve seen that mouth do, I never, ever want to kiss it.:_ The string of images and sensations that tagged along with the words- Hanny, with way too many hot dogs in front of him, mouth smeared with ketchup, then later, Hanny throwing up as Elias held his hair back, were enough to paint a thorough picture, Elias was sure. 

Ritter’s shoulder shook with the force of the laughter he was trying to keep in, echoing through Elias’s head like bells and hot as a summer’s day. 

Elias grinned down at his skates. 

Things were looking up.

* * *

Elias should have known it wouldn’t last. But he’d thought he’d have longer- that he would have had more than a week before everything ended up ruined once again.

He’d been keeping his Talent status secret, mostly successfully, for over ten years. That was a hell of a long time, and he’d probably been lucky to make it that long. He’d been worried that coming to Calgary and Ritter, another high level Talent, might expose him. He’d been acutely aware of the possibility, and tried so, so hard to keep Ritter from ever finding out.

The irony, then, that when it all came crashing down Ritter had absolutely _nothing_ to do with it. Nothing at all, and that almost made it worse. He could have at least felt like he’d tried, if it had been Ritter. 

Crashing down. Hah. Elias was fucking hilarious sometimes. Shaking, he curled up tighter on his bed as he traced back the steps to how it had all gone so, so wrong.

* * *

Elias was having more fun at practice than he had for a while. He was steadfastly ignoring how much of that had to do with whether or not he had Ritter in his head. Ritter picked up it, because of course he did, and grinned at him. 

_:Aww, Lindy, I missed you too!:_ He cooed, and Elias flipped him a quick finger, following it with the mental equivalent of a blown raspberry noise. 

Ritter doubled over laughing, because the noise was funny out loud and _hysterical_ when done mentally and combined with several images suggesting exactly where Ritter could shove it. 

The rest of the team rolled their eyes. “I can’t believe we were actually worried about you two assholes.” Hanny muttered. 

Elias quirked an eyebrow at him. Hanny shrugged. “You guys were being weird.” He eyed Ritter, who was still chuckling. “I’m not actually sure if this is _less_ weird, though.” 

Elias shrugged. “Watch out for what you wish for?” He suggested. That wasn’t quite right, he could tell from the face Hanny made, but it must have gotten the point across well enough. 

Coach clapped his hands, signaling the end of the break. “They’ve got a work crew coming in later, so let’s get this done and out of their way.” He barked. 

Elias sighed and pushed off, heading back to Johnny and Mony for the next drill. He was kind of glad that Coach wouldn’t be able to push them for too long- he was feeling pretty tired after all the suicides they’d had to run earlier. 

Ritter snorted at him, and Elias pulled a face. It wasn’t like Ritter hadn’t had to do the same sprints, so he didn’t see why Ritter was giving _him_ shit, not when he could _feel_ how tired the muscles in Ritter’s legs were. 

_:Guess I just wear it better.:_ Ritter teased. Elias rolled his eyes. 

_:Like you’re not looking forward to collapsing on your couch like the rest of us.:_ He shot back. He heard something metal creak, but ignored it. There was a reason the work crew was coming in later- the ceiling needed to be checked out, it got way too noisy every time it got windy. 

Coach blew the whistle, and they started the drill, something pretty basic Coach had decided they needed a refresher on. Elias let his mind wander a little as his muscles took him through the motions. He kind of wanted chicken for dinner tonight... 

Metal creaked again, louder this time. That was different. Elias glanced up, but everything looked fine. Coach blew the whistle again, signaling for a change. Elias retreated to the boards, watching Nealer’s line run through the same drill with disinterested eyes. 

This time, it wasn’t a creak. This time, the screech of rending metal was loud enough to make everyone pause. Elias looked up again, and- fuck. 

Oh holy fuck, a ceiling panel had torn loose and was fucking _falling_. 

Right towards Nealer’s line. 

Oh fuck, it was _enormous_. Like, crushing humans like fucking bugs _huge_. 

Elias stared in horror. They were trying to get out from under it. It was falling so fast. 

They weren’t going to make it.

One thought crystallized out of the panic. _:I can’t believe that this is how it’s going to come out. Because I have to save Nealer from being crushed.:_

He only half heard Ritter’s startled _:Lindy, what? What are you-:_

He hadn’t realized he’d broadcast that. Oh well. He was a bit too busy to explain things now. 

Raising his hands felt like they were moving through molasses. Time seemed to slow. Elias narrowed his eyes. 

It had been a long, long time since he’d teleported anything on purpose, and this thing was bigger than anything he’d moved before. Maybe if he”d had more practice, he could have done it on his own, but. He hadn’t, so he needed more power. Instinctually, he began to do what every Prime learned, and began tapping into the energy around him. The lights flared, some of them popping as their fuses suddenly blew. Ritter yelped as Elias drew him in too, linking their minds tighter than ever before as all of his mind and being narrowed into one. Single. Push. 

The metal panel froze midair. 

The entire room fell silent. 

“What the fuck.” Someone breathed. Elias couldn’t be bothered to figure out who. He lowered his hands, inch by inch, and the metal lowered with them. Nealer and the others scrambled out of the way, skate blades harsh in the reverential quiet. The metal came to rest on the ice with a soft thud.

Elias blinked. He dropped his hands, and released the grip he’d taken on the many machines of the rink. Another light blew out, loud in the stunned silence. 

“Lindy?” Ritter’s voice broke the hush.

Time returned to full speed, and Elias’s heart began to hammer. 

He’d just done that. He’d displayed the ability of telekinesis, when everyone _knew_ he was a telepath. 

Everyone knew that only Primes had more than one Talent. 

Ritter’s voice, again. “Lindy, hey. You ok?” He heard skates getting closer. A low mutter was starting to build as the rest of the team processed what they’d just seen. 

“Did you see-“

“What was-“

“Holy shit, oh my god what the fuck-“

“That was fucking telekinesis!”

Johnny. Of course. His voice was really shrill, some distant part of him noted. Elias should probably give him shit for that. 

“Lindy?” Ritter’s voice had gotten closer. Elias turned his head, slowly. He felt like a statue, each joint grinding as he moved, slow and implacable. Ritter had a hand out. “Hey man, you don’t look so good, maybe you should sit down-“

“He ‘ported the panel down!” 

Of all things, it was the idea of Ritter touching him that finally snapped Elias out of the state of frozen shock he’d fallen into. 

He couldn’t be here anymore. He couldn’t- no, he couldn’t look, couldn’t see their faces. Didn’t _want_ to see their faces. To see what they might be feeling. 

(Primes were loved. Primes were respected. Primes were always, always, fucking _feared_.)

“I can’t.” He choked out. “I’m sorry.” He added, because he kept fucking doing shit to Ritter without asking, even though this had been an emergency. “I’m sorry.” He said again, this time meaning everything, before ‘porting himself out of the rink with a wrench. 

He heard shouts, someone yelling “Lindy, wait!” But Elias was gone, twisting space around him with a grunt of effort, before he was appearing in his apartment’s kitchen. He landed hard on his skates, stumbling as suddenly the blades had to contend with the linoleum. He finally just let himself fall backwards, collapsing to sit, still in full gear, against the counter. 

For a long moment, he just stared into nothing, the events of the last five minutes slowly catching up to his adrenaline soaked brain. 

Elias choked on a laugh. Over ten years of keeping a secret, gone down the drain, because he just couldn’t let someone die in front of him. He curled over, body shaking with the force of his hysterics. “A fucking ceiling panel.” Elias gasped to himself, laughing loudly enough he was sure the neighbors could hear. 

He’d revealed himself, outed himself as one of the incredibly rare Primes, all because of a fucking _ceiling panel_. 

“Fuck.” He hissed, still laughing even as tears began to slip down his cheeks. He let himself slip down until he was curled on his side, still in full gear, laughing and sobbing as if his world was ending and he’d set the match himself. 

Which, it probably was. He probably had. It had been a closed practice, but the team and coaching staff were still there. They’d all seen. They’d all _know_ ; what he was, what that meant. Elias wondered, distantly, how long it would take for someone from FT&T to get here, once they called. 

Called to report an unknown, possibly uncontrolled Prime. (Any other time, Elias would resent the label. He’d developed iron control over himself, his Talent in order to avoid being discovered. Right now though, he _felt_ out of control. He felt flayed open and raw and so, so uncontrolled.)

He’d go with them. They wouldn’t force him- oh no, FT&T was entirely voluntary, but. 

It wasn’t like anyone would ever play hockey with him again. 

Ritter had been a scandal. 

Elias would be a catastrophe. 

Primes were loved. Primes were feared. 

No one would want him, no one would want to play with him. Not when he was a Prime, not when he had enough power in his mind to fucking destroy someone, never mind that he would _never_. 

He’d end up with the other Primes, because no one else would want to fucking talk to him anymore.

Not even Ritter.

Elias’s laughter, even as hysterical as it was, finally faded, taken over by sobs and hot, choking tears. 

He’d be lucky if Ritter didn’t hate him after this. 

Elias had, after all, lied to him, used him, and then abandoned him. 

In that scenario, Elias would hate himself too. 

He lost track of how long he laid there, hair soaked with sweat and tears. He finally had to move when he noticed his chest pad was digging into him, probably dislodged by the ‘port and then the slow collapse Elias had undertaken. 

Plus, he’d been practicing for hours. The gear _stank_. 

Pushing himself upright felt like moving a mountain. His limbs were heavy and trembling, aftershocks still coursing through them. His fingers felt like sausages, but he finally coaxed them through unlacing his skates so he could pull them off and set them aside, before he damaged them or his apartment further. 

Standing required support from the counter. He was shaking, from exhaustion and leftover adrenaline and fear. As much as he could feel through the numbness that was slowly taking him over, anyway. 

Shaky fingers slowly stripped him of the hockey gear. Each piece that came off felt like it took a piece of him with it, as if he was forcibly shedding his identity as a hockey player with every strap undone, with every pad removed. When he finally had to shuck the practice jersey, he couldn’t hold back the tears. Staring down at the Flames logo, Elias cried. 

He hadn’t even really wanted to _be_ a Flame, in the beginning. But now, taking off the team’s symbol for what was probably the last time, Elias couldn’t stop the tears from falling, soaking into the flames of the C. Putting them out, he thought with a high pitched, watery laugh. 

He’d really liked them. All of them. 

He was going to miss them. 

Fuck, he was really going to miss Ritter. He really would have liked to kiss Ritter, even just once. It kind of sucked, that now he would never be able to. (It wasn’t like he’d been able to before, but at least the possibility was there, if Elias ever mustered up the courage. Now, Ritter probably hated him.)

It took several long minutes for Elias’s eyes to clear enough for him to remove the rest of the gear, which he piled up next to the counter. He’d deal with it later. For now...

For now, he needed a shower. 

He really did stink, and that... That wasn’t the greatest first impression to make. (He ignored that he didn’t want to make any first impressions. He didn’t hunk he’d get that luxury.)

His shower was brief, mostly due to the fact that he was actively fighting to remain upright by this point. 

Falling into bed was the best he’d felt since the whole mess started. Curling up on his side, Elias closed his eyes, and waited. For sleep, or for the knock on his door that would signal what was going to happen to him next. Sleep didn’t come. He was exhausted, but his mind was racing. How long had it been? Surely someone was on their way? 

His phone had stopped blowing up, if only because he’d finally shut it off. He hadn’t read any of the texts. He’d been too afraid to. He hadn’t answered any of the calls either. He wasn’t actually sure who had called- he hadn’t wanted to look. 

Elias rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. It creaked as the person who lived above him moved around, footsteps measured and sure. 

Maybe this ceiling could collapse too. He wouldn’t ‘port out from under this one, though. He was just too tired. 

He finally fell into a fitful sleep, his body just too tired to support his frantic mind anymore.

* * *

The pounding on his door was what roused him eventually. It was loud- they’d probably tried knocking at first, but that would have been too quiet to wake him. Elias woke, slowly at first, then all at once as he realized what the pounding meant. He stared, wide eyes and frozen. 

He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t become another one of FT&T’s Primes, tucked away from the rest of the world. The pounding got louder. 

“Lindy! Lindy, please, open up!” That... didn’t sound like someone from FT&T. That sounded like...

“Lindy, please! I can feel that you’re in there, please let me in!” 

That sounded like Ritter. 

Elias blinked, mind hazy with sleep and panic. Why was Ritter here? He didn’t work for FT&T anymore, they had blacklisted him after he left to play hockey. They wouldn’t have sent him to collect Elias. 

“Lindy!” Ritter’s breath caught on what sounded like a sob. “Elias, _please_.” He begged. “We’re all worried about you. _I’m_ worried about you.” 

Worried? Why? 

“Please, just. Open the door. Please, just let me know that you’re ok.” 

Why wouldn’t Elias be ok? He wasn’t the one who almost died today. He paused. 

Three of his teammates had almost _died_ and he was sat here freaking about what it would mean for his future. 

_Fuck_ , that was _really_ shitty of him. 

That thought was what finally got him out of bed. He tugged on a pair of sweatpants, but didn’t bother with a shirt. He’d probably just get tangled in it anyway. His limbs still weren’t fully cooperating with him. 

As he padded to the door, he could hear Ritter’s voice get louder. “Elias! Come on, please!” He was shouting through the thin wood. Elias pondered telling him that probably every person in the building could hear him. The walls were not soundproof and Ritter was _loud_. He shook his head. At this point, he was just delaying the inevitable.

Reaching out, his fingers curled around the doorknob, Elias froze. Swallowing hard, he stared at the door, imagining what was beyond it. 

Anger? Fear? Hate? 

Ritter’s voice broke. “I can’t feel you anymore.” He almost whispered. “Please, just be ok.”

Elias flicked open the lock and pulled open the door before he could think any more. Ritter’s hand was up, poised to bang again. He stared at Ritter, the words _’I never even got to kiss you.’_ the only clear thought in his head. Ritter’s hand was still up, frozen. Elias braced himself to dodge in case Ritter decided to turn that into a punch. 

Ritter’s face crumpled instead. 

“Oh thank god.” He whispered, before reaching out and yanking Elias into a hug. Elias blinked. His face was smushed hard into Ritter’s shoulder. Ritter’s arms were wrapped around him, vice like, as the goalie buried his face in Elias’s hair. Tentatively, Elias brought his arms up, sort of awkwardly as they were mostly pinned to his sides by Ritter’s, and patted at Ritter’s back. He was very confused. 

“We were so worried, Lindy, fuck. Don’t run off like that, you terrified us all.” He breathed. 

Which, what? 

“What?” Elias said out loud, though it was muffled by Ritter’s shirt. It was soft, he noticed distantly, and smelled like Ritter’s preferred cologne. It was nice. 

Ritter finally leaned back slightly, though he still didn’t let go of Elias. “Lindy.” He said gently. “You performed a sudden act of telekinesis and gestalt so powerful that you blew out half the lights in the rink and then teleported away after broadcasting panic so loud that the entire building- nonTalents included- felt it. We’ve been worried sick.” 

Elias kind of missed Ritter calling him Elias. It had sounded kind of nice, in his voice. His accent shaped the vowels differently, softened them a little. In a good way, though. 

“You’re not... mad?” He asked. 

Ritter stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “Lindy, why the fuck would I be mad?” 

Why _wouldn’t_ he be? Elias said as much. “I lied to you- to all of you- for _months_. I let you assume things about me that weren’t true, and.” He swallowed hard. “I used yourTalent for gestalt without asking. I used _you_.” 

Ritter started shaking his head immediately. “You used my Talent to help save our teammates _lives_.” He said, soft but insistent. “There was no time to do anything but react, and Lindy. I’m so fucking grateful that you did. They all are.” 

He paused. “They’re also going to kick your ass for making us worry like that, but that comes later. First off, are you ok?” 

Elias blinked. “The team is ok?” He asked, ignoring the question. “Nealer and the others- they’re alright?” 

Ritter stared for a second. “What the- _yes_ , they’re fine! They’re all out of their minds worried about you, I had to convince them to let me come alone so that they didn’t overwhelm you. Nealer is insisting he owes you drinks for the rest of forever, and Gio is about ready to come over himself to make sure you didn’t fall into a coma or something. You haven’t been answering your phone and everyone is freaking out.”

“I turned it off.” Elias said, dazedly. Ritter was still hugging him. He was really warm, it felt good. Elias turned his cheek, nuzzling into Ritter’s shoulder. He was going to enjoy this for as long as he could get it. 

“We figured that out eventually.” Ritter said dryly. His cheeks were kind of red, Elias saw. He wondered why. 

“So, when are they coming?” Elias finally made himself ask. 

“The team? Not until I give the ok- and I really don’t think you’re ok.” Elias shook his head. 

“No, not the team. FT&T.” He clarified, darting a glance up at Ritter. He looked confused. 

“Why would FT&T be coming here?” Ritter asked slowly. 

“I figured you guys called them as soon as I left the building.” Elias said matter of factly.

“Why?”

Why? _Why?_ Now it was Elias’s turn to give Ritter an incredulous look. “I’m a _Prime_ , Ritter. You have to have figured that out.” 

Ritter nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I guessed as much when I felt you gestalt with me and freeze an enormous hunk of metal in midair.” 

“Exactly.” Elias said. “So, when is FT&T coming?” 

“They aren’t.” Elias stared. “Lindy, we didn’t call them. Why would we have?” 

“Because I’m a Prime that’s been lying to you guys- to everyone- about my Talent level for years?” Elias wasn’t sure why this concept was so hard for Ritter to grasp. 

“I’m sure you had your reasons.” Ritter was being entirely too calm about this. When Elias said as much, Ritter just laughed. It wasn’t a happy sound. 

“Lindy, it’s been _hours_ since you fled the rink. We were honestly worried you’d decided to run all the way back to Sweden. I’m nowhere _near_ calm, I’m just grateful you’re here and mostly ok.” 

“Mostly?” 

“I can feel how much you’re panicking, beneath the shock.” Ritter squeezed his arms pointedly. Right. Touch allowed for deeper reads, even with shields. Elias knew that. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, _oh_.” Ritter sighed through his nose. A breeze brushed across Elias’s back, making him shiver. Actually, he was kind of cold, despite having a goalie space heater holding him like he might vanish. 

For the first time since Ritter had grabbed him, Elias took stock of the situation. They were still in the hallway, Ritter wrapped around him like a particularly large, clingy blanket. Elias still wasn’t wearing a shirt.

“Maybe we should continue this inside?” He suggested, gesturing at the very public area they were standing in. 

Ritter flushed. “Oh. Uh, yeah. Probably a good idea.” He muttered. He didn’t let go of Elias. Elias blinked up at him, before attempting a step back. He didn’t go far. Ritter’s arms tightened again.

“Um.” Elias said. Ritter blinked back at him. “You might have to let me go?” Elias suggested. 

Ritter flinched. “I’m a little afraid if I do you’ll disappear again.” He said. His tone tried for joking, but the undercurrent of raw honesty was too strong. 

“Oh.” Elias said again. He thought for a second, and then slipped one of his hands into Ritter’s. “There.” Keeping hold of Ritter’s hand, he gently nudged at Ritter’s arms until they relaxed enough to let him slide out. “C’mon.” He tugged Ritter’s hand, pulling the unresisting goalie across the threshold and into his apartment. 

As soon as the door was shut, Ritter was pulling him in again, arms doing something vaguely octopus like in their all encompassing nature. 

“You really, really scared us. Scared _me_.” He said into Elias’s hair. Which honestly couldn’t smell that great, it wasn’t like he’d been very thorough when he showered earlier. 

“Why?” Elias said again. He felt like a broken record. 

“You panicked and vanished, Lindy. I thought for a second that I was never going to see you again.” 

“And that would be a bad thing?” Elias asked cautiously. Ritter made a wounded noise. 

“Yes, that would be a bad thing!” He nearly yelled. Elias jumped. “Sorry.” Ritter added, more quietly. “Just... why do you think we wouldn’t want you around? That _I_ wouldn’t want you around.” 

Elias sighed tiredly. “I’m a Prime.” He said. Ritter made an encouraging noise. “People don’t. People don’t like being around Primes.” Elias said helplessly, shrugging as best he could within the confines of Ritter’s arms. “They’re afraid of them.” He still remembered watching people flinch back from one of the Primes when they’d come to visit Gävle. The awe on their faces had been underlined by fear. 

He hadn’t ever wanted that for himself. No power was worth people being afraid of him. 

“I figured, if people knew, no one would want to be around me or play hockey with me anymore. And now you know. The whole team knows. I figured you’d report me to FT&T so that you could get me away from you.”

Ritter made a soft, sad noise. It tugged at Elias’s heartstrings. “Lindy.” He said quietly. “None of us are going to call FT&T on you. I talked to the team before coming here, made sure no one was going to do something dumb. We all figured you had reasons for not telling us, and none of us want you to go.”

Elias drew back, staring. Ritter laughed, still quiet but much happier than before. “We _like_ you, Lindy. We don’t want you to go.” He smiled. It still looked like the sun. “I mean, you’re going to have a lot of questions to answer, but that’s just because our teammates are a bunch of nosy assholes that don’t know when to leave well enough alone.”

“You’ll let me stay, keep my secrets, just like that?” Elias asked. He couldn’t believe that. It sounded too good to be true. 

“Just like that.” Ritter confirmed. His smile widened. “We trust you, Lindy. That outweighs any sudden revelations about Talents.” He paused. “Though I would like to know how a Prime got labeled a T12.” He added. “Purely out of curiosity.” 

Elias snorted a small laugh. “I blew out the machine and it zeroed out.” He admitted. 

Ritter outright laughed at that, head tossed back to bare the long line of his throat. Elias stared. He couldn’t help it. A few hours ago, he’d thought he’d lost this forever. To find out thatmaybe he hadn’t... It was overwhelming. 

His eyes started to fill up with tears again. Ritter’s laugh cut off.

“Lindy?” He asked, alarmed, as the tears began to overflow, dropping down Elias’s face. “Lindy, what’s wrong? Did I do something?”

Elias could only just shake his head and tug on Ritter until he followed him to the couch. He flopped down onto it, pulling Ritter with him since the goalie still refused to let him go. He curled up against Ritter, burying his face in his shoulder. Ritter’s hands were rubbing in aimless circles on Elias’s back. “Lindy...” He murmured. 

“I’m just happy.” Elias finally got out through the tears. “I was. I was really scared that you guys were going to hate me.” That Ritter was going to hate him. 

“I could never hate you!” Ritter immediately exclaimed, which. What? Oh right. Deep read. Ritter had heard that. Elias’s shields were probably for shit right now anyway, never mind all the touching. 

“Yeah, you’re pretty loud right now, bud.” Ritter said affectionately. Ugh. 

Emotions were the worst. 

Ritter was shaking in laughter under him, and Elias made an annoyed noise. Ritter stilled. “Sorry.” He murmured, shifting a had up to run through Elias’s hair. That felt nice. Elias pushed into it, sighing contentedly. 

Elias didn’t know how long they sat there in silence. Eventually, his tears dried, leaving his eyes feeling sore and swollen, but his mind finally felt calm. Ritter must have sensed the shift. 

“Feel better?” He asked quietly. Elias nodded, but didn’t move. “I’m glad.” Ritter paused. “Is it ok if I call Gio, let him know that you’re ok and haven’t left the country?”

Elias thought about that. He didn’t want to worry the team any more than he apparently had already. He nodded. “Tell then I’m ok, but not up to visitors.” He said finally. Ritter nodded. 

“Yeah, of course. They’ll understand.” He shifted, pulling out his phone. Elias tuned him out, mind drifting to all the things he’d been feeling since he first stopped that panel from crushing his teammates. It was a lot to process, but he needed to. Ritter’s voice was quiet in the background, Gio’s echoing through the speakers. Eventually, Ritter hung up. 

“They’ve got a lot of questions, but they’re willing to wait for you to be ready to answer them.” He told Elias quietly. Elias nodded. “Coach said to take tomorrow off.” Ritter continued.

Elias nodded again. That made sense. He was still really tired, and probably wouldn’t be up to practicing tomorrow anyway. 

One of the things he’d thought about was niggling at him. Elias frowned, poking at it. He’d been... Oh. Right. Ritter sensed his sudden disquiet. “Lindy?” He asked softly. Elias sat up properly so that he could look at Ritter. If that also meant decreasing the amount of contact between the two of them... Well. Elias kind of wanted to say this out loud. 

This morning, he never would have done this. But this morning, Ritter hadn’t known he was a Prime, or nearly banged down his door trying to make sure that he was ok, or hugged him and refused to let go. 

Elias swallowed hard. “While I was waiting for FT&T,” he started slowly. Ritter made a hurt noise. Elias shook his head before Ritter could interrupt. “While I was waiting, I was thinking,” Elias continued. He took a deep breath, and met Ritter’s eyes. 

“I was going to miss a lot of things, if I had to leave the team. But what I was most sad about.” He had to take another breath. His heart was in his throat and he felt like he might choke on it. “What I regretted the most was that I’d never get to kiss you.” 

Ritter’s jaw _dropped_. Elias had never seen that in real life before. They sat in silence, Ritter’s mind blank with shock, for so long that Elias started to get nervous. He fidgeted with the seam of the couch cushion, pulling back. “Sorry.” He muttered, eyes downcast. 

“No, wait!” Ritter grabbed for his hands. “You mean that?” He asked. Elias looked up. Ritter was giving him the most intense look he’d ever seen. “You really mean that?”

Elias nodded. “I like you.” He said quietly. “I really, really like you.”

The joy that burst across Ritter’s face and through his skin was enough to knock Elias flat. 

“I like you too.” 

The words didn’t register for a moment. Nowhere in any of his thoughts about how this conversation might go, had Elias once though that... 

That Ritter might feel the same way. 

“Oh.” Elias breathed. His eyes were probably completely round with how wide they were, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

The smile that broke across his face was slow, but no less bright than Ritter’s. For a long moment, they just watched each other smile, basking in the happiness refracted and reflected between them. 

Ritter tilted his head, smile growing ever so faintly sly. “So. About that kiss...” He quirked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t want you to have any regrets.” 

Elias laughed, but leaned in until their lips met. 

Every last shield fell away with that final touch, their minds entwining until they couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. 

For a long moment, it was gentle, chaste even- a barely there butterfly of a first kiss. Then, in an effort to keep his neck from protesting the angle it was suddenly forced into, Elias slid closer, until their torsos were pressed together entirely. Ritter’s shirt was soft worn and warm against Elias’s skin. Ritter- _:You can call me David, you know.:_ \- _David_ hummed under his breath, broadcasting how pleased he was by the closeness. 

Elias smiled into the kiss, before leaning back for a moment. David made a discontent noise as he followed, chasing after Elias. “Call me Elias.” He said. It seemed important enough to say out loud. “I like how it sounds in your voice.” 

David’s eyes flickered then, a quickly banked heat that Elias instantly wanted to see again. “Elias.” He said, and his voice was rough. It sent shivers down Elias’s spine. “Kiss me.” 

Elias was more than happy to oblige. 

He lost track of how long they spent sitting on his couch, trading lazy kisses filled with warmth and joy. What did it matter? He was here, he was staying, and David liked him too. In the face of that, nothing could bring him down. 

At least, until a yawn forced Elias to break the kiss. He covered his mouth with one hand, snorting a little. David laughed, but soft. Gentle. 

“You’ve had one hell of a day.” He said quietly. “You should probably get some sleep.”

The sun had long since set, not that that meant much in Canada in winter, and the shadows from the street lamp outside cast David’s features into sharp relief. Elias had to lean in an kiss him again, and would happily kept going, but another yawn broke through. He offered David a sheepish smile. 

“Sorry.” David shook his head.

“Elias, I’m jus happy you’re ok and _here_.” He said quietly. The words _’with me’_ underlined the words so strongly Elias didn’t even need to be in David’s head to hear them. “Anyone would be exhausted after the way today’s gone.” He began to pull back, carefully disentangling limbs that had entwined. 

Elias made a noise of protest, more mental than anything out loud, and tried to tug David back in. David chuckled, but kept going. Elias frowned at him. 

“You need to sleep.” David said. Which was true, and Elias acknowledged as much, tilting his head, but why did that mean David leaving? He broadcast that too. He didn’t see much point in fumbling through words when David could just _know_. 

David paused. “You want me to stay?” 

Was that even in question? Elias nodded, giving David a look that hopefully conveyed how much of a dumb question that was. 

David snorted a laugh. “Ok, jeez, no need to give me a migraine.” Oops. Elias hadn’t realized he was projecting _that_ strongly. 

“Sorry.” He murmured, carefully layering the word with his contrition. David waved a hand, projecting that he didn’t mind right back. 

“Eh, it’s ok. I’m just not used to how you feel when you’re not holding back yet.” Elias ducked his head, shame welling up at the reminder of his deception (he didn’t mind that most others thought him a T12, but lying to David had gotten a lot harder the second he actually met the guy, and started making him feel bad around the time they started regularly sharing brain space). David nudged him. “Hey, none of that. I already told you, it’s fine. You had your reasons. I of all people can understand that.” He reminded Elias. 

And David did know. Elias could tell, the words punctuated with a million times someone had insulted David, scolded him for daring to prefer hockey over bending his Talent to humanity’s betterment. 

“Exactly.” David smiled at him. 

Elias smiled back, though it was probably ruined by the way his eyes were starting to droop. 

“C’mon, bed.” David chivvied him into standing, wrapping an arm around his waist when it became clear very quickly that Elias’s legs were not up to supporting his weight. Slowly, they made their way to Elias’s bedroom, Elias leaning heavily on David. It was more for the contact than the support at this point, though he did appreciate that too. 

Collapsing onto his bed, Elias barely mustered up the energy to shuck his sweatpants, and in his boxers, climb under the covers. There was that flare of heat from David again, swiftly tucked away, and Elias smiled into his pillow. 

It was nice to know his attraction wasn’t one sided, either. He flopped out a hand, patting at the empty side of the bed in invitation. “Come on. It’s late, sleep here.” 

David still hesitated. “Are you sure? You’ve been through a lot today, don’t you want to sleep it off?” Elias pushed himself up just enough to give David a sleepy glare. 

“Rather sleep it off with you here.” He dropped his head back to the pillow. David still didn’t climb into bed, and with a sigh, Elias went in for the kill. 

“You can’t tell me you really want to leave me alone.” 

That hit home. David sucked in a breath, sharp and loud. “You play dirty.” He said, but he didn’t sound mad, more rueful and amused. 

Elias gave him a flat look. “You haven’t let go of me the entire time you’ve been here. Forgive me if that leads me to think that you don’t want to leave.” 

David sighed, the amusement strengthening. “You got me there.” He admitted, and started stripping out of his clothes. Elias watched with a sleepy sort of hunger (he wasn’t ever not going to be interested in the man of his dreams taking off his clothes, even if Elias was currently in no state to actually do anything about that). David caught his eye and smiled, knowing exactly what Elias was thinking, and climbed into bed next to him. 

Immediately, Elias flipped over, reaching out to wrap an arm around David’s chest and sling a leg over his. David laughed, quietly. 

“Clingy.” He teased. Elias shrugged, unbothered. 

“Not many people I can touch without catching something I don’t want to.” He muttered. “It feels nice.” 

The teasing faded, melancholy overtaking it. “Oh.” David said. “Oh. You’re a _Prime_.” 

Elias glanced up at him, eyebrow raised. “I thought we established that a while ago.” He said, tone dry as dust. 

David flushed. “I guess I hadn’t really thought of what that meant.” He said, embarrassment coloring his mind. “And we all just kept touching you... God that must have been awful.” 

Elias shrugged. “I have very good shields.” 

“That you do.” David agreed. “But that doesn’t keep out everything, does it? It must be overwhelming.” 

David was in Elias’s head fully now. He couldn’t lie even if he wanted to. “I am very good at tuning things out.” Was what he said. He knew David would pick up the rest. David pressed a kiss to the top of Elias’s head. 

“Just let me know. Anything you need, even if it’s just someone to nudge people out of the way.” He said, quiet and earnest. “Don’t want you to hurt, Elias. Not ever.”

Elias loved this man. So, so much. 

David’s breath caught. He’d heard the thought- how could he not? There were no barriers between them, not like this, skin to skin and all shields gone. 

“Elias?” This time, the choice to speak out loud felt deliberate- like David was giving Elias the chance to pretend their minds weren’t so tangled up that secrets were nothing but a memory. Elias met his eyes. 

_:I do think I might love you.:_ He ‘pathed back, choice equally deliberate, then frowned. _:No, I do. I do love you.:_ At this point, qualifiers were just insulting. 

_:I didn’t want to say it yet, because I thought it might be too soon.:_ He admitted quietly. 

David’s eyes were wide. _:Elias...:_

_:Sorry.:_ Elias added, looking down. This had been a bad idea... Before he could pull back, David’s hand was wrapping around the back of his head and yanking him forward as he crushed their lips together. 

“Mmmph?” Elias yelped, startled, before feeling his spine go liquid as he was thoroughly kissed. David was practically devouring his mouth, and Elias could feel a moan rising in the back of his throat as he just melted. 

David didn’t pull back until Elias was practically a puddle. 

_:I love you too.:_ David ‘pathed, and. Oh. _Oh_. 

Now Elias understood why feeling those words could drive David to kiss him like he was water and David was dying of thirst. Elias kind of wanted to himself, as the words reverberated through his synapses like the aftershocks of a church bell. 

_:Oh.:_ He breathed, not trusting his mouth to form the words. 

David beamed at him. _:Yeah.:_ Even his mental voice sounded breathless. Elias’s chest felt too full, like it might burst. He couldn’t stop smiling, even as he buried his face in David’s shoulder. One of David’s hands began stroking his hair. Elias hummed, quiet and content. 

“Get some rest.” David murmured. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Elias hadn’t even known that was the promise he’d been waiting for, but it settled something inside him-something he hadn’t known was still afraid that this might be taken from him. Yawning, he let his eyes close, and the soft, rhythmic motion to David’s hand quickly lulled him to sleep.

* * *

Elias woke up slowly. 

He was warm and comfortable, and had an arm around his waist and a mind pressed up against his, all sleepy contentment. His sleep muddled brain paused at that- he had an arm around him?

The events of last night began to trickle back, and he smiled softly. David’s arm was a heavy, comforting weight around him. They must have shifted in the night, going from Elias sprawling over David to being curled up on their sides, loosely spooned together, but he liked it. He felt surrounded by the larger man, his mind and body all cocooned protectively. 

Happiness like warm honey was running through his veins, and he snuggled closer, enjoying the heat David’s larger body put off. He was ready to go back to sleep- he had the day off, might as well enjoy it- when David’s arm tightened in his sleep, pulling Elias flush against him. And in doing so, pressing Elias’s ass firmly against David’s very hard dick. 

Honey turned to lava in an instant, warmth burned off and replaced with scorching heat. Elias’s eyes shot open. David’s mind made it clear he was still asleep, curled around Elias like a very large, very content cat, but at least one part of him was very, very awake. Elias shifted slightly, and had to bite back a moan at how even that slight friction caused David’s dick to twitch against him. 

Without conscious thought, the memories of that night in the hotel flooded back, and Elias could feel himself growing hard as well. He bit his lip at the remembered sensations. 

God, the look in David’s eyes... Elias shuddered. Even the memory of it was almost too much to bear, and he couldn’t keep himself from rolling his hips back into David’s at the thought. David’s arm tightened again. 

He was awake- and going by the way his mind felt, hot and heavy where it pressed into Elias, very interested. 

“What are you doing?” His voice was low and rough with sleep, sending tingles down Elias’s spine. 

“Waking you up.” His voice wasn’t much better. God, he sounded _wrecked_. He couldn’t keep his mind from returning to that night, the way it had felt, David fucking that stranger. 

David’s moan was strangled in his chest as his hips jerked against Elias’s. “Fuck, _Elias_.” He hissed. 

Elias’s answering moan felt almost torn out of him. 

“God, that night...” David nearly whispered. “When I felt you, realized you’d been watching through his eyes...” This time, the roll of his hips was purposeful, grinding hot and dirty against Elias’s ass. Elias shuddered. “I had to stop myself from coming right then, just from the thought, that you were feeling it like I’d been fucking _you_.” Elias tipped his head back to rest against David’s shoulder, a hectic flush staining his cheeks red. He was hard enough to hurt. 

“I had to run back to my room.” He murmured, like he was sharing a secret. “I was so hard. I almost came right there in the hallway.” 

David groaned, bringing his lips down to mouth at the curve of Elias’s ear. “Did you jerk off? Make yourself come thinking of me?”

“Yesssss.” Elias couldn’t stop the words if he’d tried. He’d never been one for dirty talk, but fuck this felt so good. “I- ah- nearly passed out.” 

“What did you think of?” 

Elias pushed his ass back _hard_. “If you’d fucked me instead of him.” 

David’s hands slid down, clamping down on Elias’s hips. “I would have.” He breathed into Elias’s ear. “If you’d asked, I’d have kicked him out and fucked you right there.” 

“Ah!” Elias’s hips jerked forward at that, straining against David’s grasp. “Oh, fuck.” He whispered at the images David was flooding him with. Elias, knocking on the door, David, turning to look. The guy, there and then gone, Elias falling onto the bed in his place. 

David fucking him for real, this time. 

Elias gasped. “Yes.” He hissed, arching his back at the very idea. “God, fuck, _please_...” 

One of David’s hands lifted from Elias’s hips- he was probably going to have bruises there, a distant part of him noted- reaching down to palm at Elias’s ass. “Fuck.” David growled in his ear. 

Every part of Elias was singing, every nerve attuned to David’s touch. David wasn’t any better, his mind nearly deafening with how much he wanted this. 

“Can I?” David’s hand was toying with the waistband of his boxers now, slipping just the tips of his fingers under. The shock of skin on skin was enough to set Elias on _fire_. “Can I fuck you, Elias?” 

Elias’s heart was slamming against his rib cage, like a bird trying to break free. “Yes, yes, fuck _yes_.” He shoved at his boxers, trying to get them off without having to pull away from David. David hissed as Elias rubbed against his dick, hips twitching. His other hand finally let go of Elias’s hip, reaching up to cup his cheek instead as he pulled Elias’s mouth to his, kissing Elias hot and hard, a slide of tongue coaxing Elias’s lips to part. David’s moan reverberated through both their chests, they were pressed so close together. 

“Lube.” David panted. “We need-“ Elias scrambled for the bedside table, yanking out a bottle of lube and a condom. Shoving them into David’s hands, he set about stripping off the last bit of cloth between them. 

“God, Elias.” David groaned. “So hot, fuck.” Finally, they were both naked, dicks pressed together. Elias tilted his head back, and felt David’s lips instantly attach themselves, kissing down his throat. Elias rolled his hips, feeling their cocks catch and slide. 

“Ah- David, fuck, I need you to fuck me.” He moaned. David froze for a moment, before cursing under his breath. 

“Gonna kill me, I swear.” He muttered, before nudging Elias’s shoulder until he was laying on his back, David hovering above him. 

“This is ok?” David asked. 

“God, yes.” He canted his hips up, spreading his legs wide. “C’mon.” He urged David. There was no room for shame or embarrassment here, not when he could feel how much David wanted him, how much David _loved_ him. There was no time for foreplay either. Elias wanted David in him _yesterday_. 

David swore, eyes flashing as he picked up on Elias’s thoughts, but grabbed the lube. Elias’s eyes fluttered closed at the first touch of David’s finger against his hole, a broken moan caught behind his teeth. It had been a long time since he’d done this, but he’d never forgotten how much he liked it. 

David’s finger slid into him easily, and Elias’s breath caught. “Oh.” He rolled his hips back, chasing more of that feeling, more, just _more_. 

“Christ.” David muttered. “Elias, babe, fuck.” 

“Fuck, need you to _fuck_ me.” Elias hissed. 

David’s moan had a desperate edge. He added another finger, scissoring them. Elias arched as they hit the spot inside that sent lightning up his spine. David’s hips jerked against the bed as Elias reached out, entwining their minds and feeding his pleasure into David as well.

David redoubled his efforts, rubbing the pads of his fingers against that spot again and again, even as he stretched Elias out. Elias barely even felt it when he pushed a third finger in. “I’m ready, I’m ready.” He gasped, before his vice finally failed. 

_:Fuck me, fucking fuck me **now**!:_ Elias ‘pathed. David muffled a groan in Elias’s hip, before slowly pulling his fingers out. Elias moaned, clenching around the sudden emptiness. David choked on a breath, before scrambling to unroll the condom on his cock. It was barely to work of a second to add more lube, and then, _finally_ , he was pushing in. 

Elias shuddered, every muscle locked tight as he fell into a spiral of pleasure. He felt so _full_ , David’s cock hard and heavy and his mind fever hot where it wrapped around Elias’s. Every shift of their bodies sent shockwaves through both of them, a feedback loop that wound them higher and higher. 

Elias wrapped his legs around David’s hips and pulled him in. _:Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me.:_ He demanded, and David, giving a broken groan, did so. 

The first thrust was enough to knock the breath right out of Elias, David’s cock dragging against his prostate as he pulled out and then shoved back in, bottoming out in one smooth motion. David’s eyes were just as heated as Elias remembered, but this was so much better, because now he was looking at _Elias_ , mouth curved up into a small smile and so much love in his eyes. 

_:Yes, love you so much. Fuck, Elias. You feel so good:_ David ‘pathed, eyes falling closed as he fucked into Elias hard. 

Elias’s back arched, and his mouth fell open, moaning loud enough that he was sure the neighbors could probably hear. He didn’t care. David’s cock was sending lightning up his spine with every brush against his prostate, and David’s pleasure was lighting fireworks behind his eyes. Elias had never had sex with another Talent before. It was like nothing he’d felt before, every scrap of pleasure magnified and reflected back at him, an endless cycle that sent him spiraling higher than he’d ever gone before. 

Elias wasn’t going to last. His skin felt like it was on fire, and every thrust only stoked the flames higher. He just needed... _:Touch me.:_ He ‘pathed, and with a groan, David did so, shifting his weight to one hand so that he could wrap the other, still slick with lube, around Elias’s cock. It took barely a handful of strokes before Elias was coming hard enough to see stars, clenching around David’s cock. David slowed for a moment, wordlessly asking if Elias needed him to pull out. Elias growled, shaking his head and locking his legs behind David’s back. 

_:Want you to come in me.:_

David shuddered, eyes going wild for a moment. _:Fuck, Elias, you can’t just-:_ He trailed off, finally picking up the pace, slamming into Elias hard enough to shake the bed. Elias arched under him, moaning as his oversensitive nerves sparked uncontrollably, pleasure to the point of pain making them sing. 

David made one last thrust, grinding into Elias as deeply as he could go, before going still. His orgasm ripples through them both, making Elias shake with the aftershocks as his cock made a valiant effort to get hard again. 

David’s arm finally gave out, and he collapsed onto Elias’s chest, smearing come between them. Elias hugged out a breath, but didn’t complain. It felt kind of nice, actually. He lazily lifted one arm, resting his hand in David’s hair, stroking with fingers that still felt clumsy and nerveless. 

“Well. I can’t say that was what I’d had in mind for this morning.” David finally managed to catch his breath. 

Elias hummed questioningly. David shrugged, mind giving off a sheepish sort of satisfaction. “Thought I’d make you breakfast, kiss you some more. Take things slow.” 

Why on earth would they do that when they could be doing _this_? David huffed a laugh.

“Didn’t know for sure if you wanted it.” 

Elias snorted. As if. But also, David was getting kind of heavy, so... He nudged at him with his mind, until David finally rolled off of him with a groan, pulling out. Elias hissed, suddenly feeling empty.

“Sorry.” David muttered. Elias shrugged. 

“Can’t help it.” His voice was raspy and rough, and he saw David shiver. His chest was growing cold and tacky now as the come dried. “Shower?” 

The flicker of interest he got at that made Elias grin. He pushed himself up, muscles that hadn’t been used in ages protesting. He stretched, feeling David’s eyes hot agains the long line of his back. Standing took some work, his legs still wobbly, but he managed, heading for the shower with David on his heels. 

It took them a very long time to actually get clean. 

Elias definitely didn’t mind.

* * *

Elias stared at the door to the locker room, heart tight in his throat. Next to him, David nudged him gently, his mind soft and warm. _:It’ll be ok. They were all worried about you.:_ He slipped his hand into Elias’s, squeezing reassuringly. _:I’m here for you.:_

That was what finally got Elias through the door. Knowing that David- Ritter, he should probably still call him Ritter at the rink- would have his back, no matter what, was enough to make Elias feel like he could do anything. 

He pushed open the doors, Ritter trailing by their linked hands. 

The room went dead silent. Elias’s heart started to race. Everyone turned to stare. 

“I fucking told you! Pay up, fuckers!” Hanny’s shout broke the hush, as he slapped Mony’s shoulder. Mony groaned. 

“Fuck off, dude.” 

Um. What? 

“Um. What?” Elias asked. Hanny smirked at him. 

“Took you long enough to get your shit together, man.” He jerked a thumb at the rest of the team. “They didn’t believe me when I bet that you two lovebirds were cozying up on your day off. So now a lot of people owe me!” He turned to yell the last sentence back at the rest of the room. 

“You guys couldn’t wait til next week?” Smitty asked, smiling good-naturedly. Elias flushed, giving him a helpless shrug. 

He’d been expecting an inquisition, not... Not whatever this was. Which. It looked like his asshole teammates had been betting on when he and Ritter were going to get together, which was just. What the fuck, really? 

“I think we’d waited long enough.” David said quietly, thumb rubbing circles on Elias’s hand. Elias nodded. Yeah, he could definitely agree with that. 

He gave David a small smile, a nudge of thanks for, well, everything, and then let go, heading for his stall. The team backslapped him as he went, congratulations and welcome backs all mixing into the best kind of cacophony. Twenty minds all brushed against his, and for once, Elias welcomed it, reveled in being with people who knew exactly what he was and wanted him there anyway. 

Mony gave him a fist bump and a solemn nod. Johnny grinned up at him. 

“So. Guess that means you can link us all together in a super awesome mind meld after all, eh?” 

Elias laughed. He couldn’t help it. It just felt so good, to be here, to be accepted. To be part of the team. 

“That’s still illegal, man. They have refs who can sense that kind of thing.” 

“Damn.” 

“Yeah, you’re going to have to settle for being awesome at hockey the regular way.” Elias shook his head, mock sorrowful. “So sorry.”

Johnny snorted, shoving at him with a careless hand. “Fuck off.” He laughed. “Come on, get changed. We’ve all been waiting for you.” 

Elias nodded, but didn’t start stripping. First, he took a long look around the room. Chucky and Smitty were laughing at Ritter in the corner, Chucky poking at one of the bruises Elias had left behind, somewhere between rounds three and four with a shit eating grin and a look of mischief in his eyes. Ritter was swatting at him, eyes alight with happiness. The rest of the team was being loud as ever, settling back into their normal rhythm as if nothing was different. 

And really, Elias thought, why should it be? 

They were all still the same people, Elias included. Now, they just knew about it. Ritter caught his eye and grinned, tugging gently on Elias’s mind where they were still linked, happiness and pride turning his face brighter than the sun. Elias tugged back, filling the link with every bit of affection he possessed, before he turned back to his stall, shucking his street clothes and yanking on pads and jersey. His team was at his back and Ritter was in his head, and all was right with the world.

It was hockey. 

It was _coming home_.

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream with me on [tumblr](%E2%80%9Cairilymusing.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D) about all the hockey boys!


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